Memories Lost
by jumbochamploonrules
Summary: After being assigned to look at a mysterious anomaly in Sector W, Rallen and Jeena are suddenly attacked by an old adversary. But after experiencing turbulence by going through a portal that appeared out of nowhere, their adversary loses all of HER memories. She offers to help Rallen and Jeena in taking on the Krawl, despite her knowing she's the same species as the monsters. Teen.
1. Deja Vu

**This fanfic is based on the Spectrobes series and primarily Spectrobes Origins.  
** **All Spectrobes characters are the property of Disney and are not my property (seriously, this is one of the few non-Kingdom Hearts Disney games that actually had games and no tv show or movie!)  
** **It will be told in the POV of Rallen and Maja with Rallen in the odd numbered chapters and Maja in the even numbered chapters.  
With this out of the way, let's begin.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

It was business as usual ever since we had defeated Krux the first time from trying to destroy Nanairo the first two times. Ever since we had defeated him and his High Krawl, he had been sending us small waves of Krawl at a time from the different portals around Nanairo that led to other planetary systems. And Jeena and I were currently in a mission briefing for an assignment by none other than Commander Grant.

"Attention all NPP officers. The Krawl are starting to regroup and form larger numbers. They have already eradicated numerous planets and systems before, but we won't let them take this one. Everyone should especially keep an eye out for the 4 High Krawl, as I've heard rumors that they have been resurrected by the leader of the Krawl. We have no knowledge of him, and all we have is a name. Krux," Commander Grant said as he showed the picture of Krux's enigmatic appearance. No one but I had ever seen his face before and I was stunned to have seen it for myself. He honestly looked half human and half Krawl, which was something I never would've expected someone like him to be like, as he was full of evil and tried to annihilate all of Nanairo with a massive Krawlosphere.

I then inspected the faces of the four High Krawl, me noting every feature they possessed, as I had already taken them down once each, Jado being the only exception with two fights. Speaking of, Jado was by far the most slippery of the bunch, as he was the craftiest and most manipulative, even to the point of absorbing the powers of the other High Krawl when I defeated them in the past. His appearance matched his twisted nature with an insane smile, blue and black skin coating his entire body, and a mean cape that had a Krawl minion that lived within it.

Gelberus was the hottest of the bunch in both temperature and temper. He was of the Corona Property and he planned to flood Nanairo by melting the ice on a planet filled with ice to free a massive swarm of Krawl to invade our system. I handled him before he could do so and the planet has since been destroyed by one of our best lasers to prevent another attempt such as that.

Gronos was one of the most dangerous because of his endless appetite, which he demonstrated when he ate all of the Spectrobe fossils in our storage and tried to devour the gravitational field on Ziba to destroy the entire planet in one go. But he was a pushover to fight in all honesty.

But the one that was the trickiest and meanest to track down and defeat was Maja, the only female of the High Krawl. She always taunted me when she had the upper hand and she was the most annoying by far, especially when she laughed at me in rebellion. But when she was backed into a corner or when she didn't get her way, she reverted to a tantrum-throwing brat, which was ultimately her downfall when I finally cornered her on a planet that was all but dead in a distant system, where I defeated her as well as a Krawl-producing flower that was on the hollowed-out husk of a planet we fought her on.

I shook the thought aside as Jeena and I were called to Commander Grant's office and he gave us our assignment. "Rallen and Jeena, your task is to go out to Sector W and investigate a strange anomaly there," Grant said to us.

"Um, with all due respect sir, that's a low-priority sector," Jeena said as a response.

"I am aware of this, but I've heard reports of a strange magnetic field in that area. It may just be a coincidence, nothing to do with the Krawl at all, but I'm not one to take chances. Head out to Sector W," Grant said to us.

"Yes sir," Jeena and I both said at the same time as we went to our cruiser and Jeena put in the coordinates while I held my Komainu in my grasp, him already asking for more food despite being fed five minerals prior.

"Komainu, you little glutton. You're hungry again?" I smiled at him, the little Spectrobe smiling and barking at that as Jeena arrived in the sector and she looked out into the space in front of us.

"Hmm.. I don't see anything bad going on here, negative for any kind of strange anomalies... you think that Grant got some bad intel?" Jeena asked me.

"I don't know..." I frowned as Komainu then jumped out of my grasp and growled from behind me, which caused me to look there and me to gasp at something I didn't expect.

"YOU?! What the hell are you doing on our ship?!" I exclaimed at the person that was looking at me with a smile, her purple face and scythe-like hair showing her true malevolent nature.

"Hahaha! I'm here to get my revenge on you after the last time!" Maja snickered at us as she was about to get the jump on us before Jeena's scanners started going haywire.

"Ack! We're being pulled straight into that portal! Brace for impact!" Jeena exclaimed, me gasping as Maja then tried to rush me, but I dodged out of her way as the ship experienced turbulence. I expected to be dead after this as my body started to fly all throughout the cockpit, but I accidentally landed right on top of Maja's head with my ass when the ship regained control, knocking her out cold the moment that it happened.

"Well... that was certainly a way to defeat her," Jeena admitted.

"Not really, she's still breathing... wait... she's getting up," I said with a frown as I prepared for round two, but Maja, upon waking up, looked around her surroundings in confusion before looking at me, her grasping her head in pain.

"Rgh... my head... where am I?" she asked, me not falling for her tricks again.

"I already told you, you're on my ship, so get off of it or I'll kick you off," I frowned at her.

"Huh?... Who are you?... And what's that red thing by your feet?..." she asked in confusion, me noting that even though Maja was here, Komainu wasn't retreating back into my Prizmod.

"Do you remember anything? Anything at all?" Jeena asked her while also keeping her distance.

"I... I can't remember anything... all I know is that I'm not like you guys... you have peach-like skin and I have purple skin... do you know who I am?" she asked as she clutched her head again.

"Um... your name is Maja. And you're something that's called a High Krawl," I said to her, wondering if she was even faking. She of all people knew what Spectrobes were because she trained Dark Spectrobes when I fought her before.

"High Krawl?... What do Krawl do?" she asked.

"Well... bad things. Krawl do very bad things... but you don't want to do bad things, do you?" Jeena asked.

"What kind of things do Krawl do?" she asked.

"They devour planets, kill anything that they see, and annihilate entire solar systems for no reason other than to satiate their hunger," I said to her.

"You're right... those do sound like bad things... I don't want to be lumped in with those things," Maja said, me being absolutely gobsmacked at her before I looked out the front of the ship and noticed something. It was a planet that I had never seen before! It looked like it had tons of water and grassy areas on it and Jeena looked at the planet as well.

"Where the heck are we? Can we contact NPP at all?" I asked Jeena.

"No, the connections are all down. We did go through a portal after all, so there's a very unlikely chance that we could contact them unless I can build a more powerful antenna," Jeena said.

"Damn... well, like my mom always said, never be too proud to ask for directions... maybe someone on that planet in front of us could tell us where we are?" I asked as I looked at the promising planet in front of us.

"Well, there does seem to be a bit of noise..." Jeena said as she looked at the panel and then we heard a voice on it.

"Hello? Can anyone hear us? This is an urgent message from Wyterra! We're under attack from an army of Krawl!" the man on the radio said, me and Jeena gasping at that as Maja looked shocked at that.

"If anyone can hear this, please hurry. We need help and quickly," the voice said as Jeena already pinpointed the location of the transmission and she looked at Maja with a smile.

"Would you like to come with us? See what we're going to be fighting against?" Jeena asked Maja.

"I'll do more than that. I'll try to help you fight these monsters. I can't allow them to kill a planet as beautiful as this one!" she said, me trying to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. I wasn't. Maja was either really, REALLY good at acting, or she really had lost all of her memories. I'd keep an eye on her for now, but if she did decide to take care of the Krawl with us, then she really would prove that she lost her memories.


	2. Defending Haven Village

**Chapter 2**

Honestly, I had no idea of who I was or what the heck I was even supposed to do. But according to these strange creatures in front of me, I was a part of a species of creature that was dangerous and murderous and that ate planets? I didn't want to believe it, but given my different colored skin, I had to believe them. But I didn't want to be that way, no matter what I was in the past. I was going to prove my worth to defending the world from these beasts even if I was technically one myself.

Once the duo landed their ship, I then had to ask them one important thing. "What are your names?" I asked them.

"I'm Rallen," the orange-haired boy said.

"And I'm Jeena, his partner. He's brawn, I'm brains," the pink-haired girl smirked as we proceeded out of the ship and I gasped as I smelled something in the air. A scent that was similar to mine. And it was over a nearby hill.

"Follow me," I said as I walked over to the hill in question and gasped at how the Krawl looked. They looked nothing like me! They all looked monstrous, not even having any eyes or mouths! "Those... are what I'm supposed to be?... They're hideous!" I gawked at the creatures.

"I think the signal may have been coming from inside of that temple. We need to go help them! Let's do this! Iku Ze!" Rallen exclaimed as he tried to do something with his wrist but looked confused at something. "Huh? Come on, work! What's wrong?!" he asked to his wrist, me wondering what the issue was.

"What's wrong? Anytime now, Rallen!" Jeena frowned.

"My Prizmod! I can't summon any Spectrobes! It must've gotten damaged during our portal trip," Rallen gawked as I noticed the little red thing barked and started to run down to the temple during their squabble!

"Hey! Your dog thing is running to the temple!" I exclaimed at them, Rallen gasping as they then slid down the hill and I followed after them, all of us trying to go into the temple, but me gasping at how I was unable to enter through the entrance for some odd reason.

"Hey! Let me in!" I exclaimed, wanting to get away from these creatures too. I saw some villagers within the place and they looked confused at my presence as well.

"Excuse me, but would your female friend out there... is she a Krawl?" an older one asked in confusion after remarking at the red dog thing.

"Yes, but she's lost all her memories," Jeena said.

"How very strange... but she is still a Krawl, and this temple is designed to keep Krawl out of it, as it is the resting place for a very important artifact that only Spectrobe Masters may use," the old man said. I looked behind me and saw that the Krawl weren't trying to attack me, so I simply stood in place and sat on the ground, as I had no idea how I could combat the creatures on my own. Hell, I knew that I had my hair in the shape of a scythe, but I had no idea how to use it! I waited for a bit until Rallen and Jeena came back out of the temple and I gawked at how they pushed something on their wrists and a sword was now in Rallen's hand and a Lance in Jeena's! And two large monsters came out of thin air!

One of the monsters looked like a tank with drills on his head and shoulders and being coated in brown. And the other looked like a horned frog with a spiky tail and massive fists. Rallen and Jeena then went in to attack the Krawl and I was in awe at how good they were in fighting them off. They were amazing when it came to battling! They were able to command the monsters by their side to demolish the Krawl until they dissipated into thin air upon being defeated.

"Whoa... that was so cool!" I gawked at them from my standpoint.

"Didn't break a sweat," Rallen smiled as the two creatures then disappeared again and I could've sworn that I saw their forms disappear INTO their wrists.

"We thank you, friends... in exchange for you assisting us, we shall have you accompany us to Haven Village. We have many matters to discuss," the old guy said, looking at me, Rallen, and Jeena as he spoke.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh as I then went with the others, some of the villagers poking me and me seeing they were kids, so I let it slide. It'd only be natural that they'd be curious of me, as I was technically a Krawl... but to even be lumped in with those fearsome creatures was not something I even wanted! We then arrived in the village to see that the Krawl had actually damaged the buildings and some of the pillars around, me frowning at that.

"To think I'm the same species as those monsters... I feel disgusted," I groaned at the sight.

"The important thing is that the villagers are safe. No casualties have happened. Now come with me to my house so we can discuss how you should progress," the man said, me frowning before he could start walking.

"What's your name anyways?" I asked him.

"My name is Radeese. I'm the village chief," he said.

"My name is Maja... do you know anything about me? Other than I'm a Krawl?" I asked him.

"Sadly, no. I have never seen you or heard of you before today. Your friends here may have more information than I could provide," Radeese said.

"Okay," I said with a smile as we then proceeded to his house and we got situated before he started to explain things.

"The Krawl have done damage to us in the past, but this is the first time in awhile they've attacked the village directly. We thank you for your assistance and in exchange, I want to show you how the Cosmolink works in digging up and reviving Spectrobes for you to use in combat," Radeese said, me looking at Rallen with a smile.

"Hey, Rallen? You have that one device that you said got busted? That Prizmid or something? Do you think Jeena could fiddle with it so that I could use it to help in battle? Obviously I can't fight if I can't remember what my powers are and I don't want to be a sitting target for the Krawl to attack me if they want to do so," I said to him.

"Sure, I can look into fixing his Prizmod. You don't mind if Maja borrows it for awhile, do you, Rallen?" Jeena asked him.

"No, I don't," Rallen smiled as he handed his Prizmod device to Jeena, which I saw it was attached to his left wrist while the other device he used was on his right wrist.

"In order for you to excavate Spectrobe fossils, as I'm sure you're aware, you'll need a Child Spectrobe to search areas of interest. Using the Cosmolink, you can see little specs of white light emanating from the earth. That's a sign that either a mineral or a fossil is nearby. But be careful of purple lights, as those contain black minerals. Touch one of those and it'll immediately lure in nearby Krawl to attack you," Radeese said.

"And what do these fossils look like?" I asked him.

"They are encased in stone and dirt and are always in the shape of a cube. You should be able to find such fossils in the Excavation Site to the northwest, to the left of my house as you leave. If you happen upon a cube, you should take these detailed notes with you. They used to belong to Wyterra's former Spectrobe Master 30 years ago. They give detailed instructions on how to free the fossil from the dirt and rock and how to revive it into a fully fledged Spectrobe," Radeese explained as he gave the plans to Jeena.

"Okay! I'll go ahead back to the ship and start making a machine based on these designs while making repairs to the Prizmod. Maja and Rallen, you two will go to the Excavation Site to find a fossil and maybe some minerals. After all, a Spectrobe gets stronger with each mineral it eats," Jeena said.

"Minerals?... Mmg... Why did my stomach just growl when I said that?" I asked as I felt my stomach rumble at the mention of that word.

"Maybe because Krawl eat Minerals too? I mean in the past you yourself were able to use Dark Spectrobes, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that you'd be able to eat Minerals like the Spectrobes you used to raise," Rallen said to me, me wondering if I could remember anything about that... no dice.

"I used to train Spectrobes in the past?... Was I... a good guy in the past?" I asked him.

"Well... not really... you don't remember, but you actively tried to destroy Nanairo in the past," Jeena said with a frown.

"I see... I don't remember anything, and I don't even care if I remember anymore. I don't want to be evil. I want to help destroy these monsters. I can't let any harm come to a planet as beautiful as this one!" I said with seriousness.

"Mm. Indeed, Wyterra and Doldogo are the only two of 6 different planets in the Kaio System that is hospitable to plants and animals. Without us, our system would not survive. Kogoeria is constantly coated in ice, Bahmud is coated in volcanoes and lava, Menehat used to be full of life before the Great Krawl War destroyed all the plants on the planet, and Slayso is completely uninhabited save for a giant tower that spans past its atmosphere and into space itself," Radeese said.

"My word... hmm... I feel like I remember something about Wyterra, but I'm not quite sure what..." I frowned as an image popped into my mind. A man that looked to have orange hair, a kind face, and wearing brown robes on his body. I knew him, yet I couldn't remember who he was for the life of me.

"Rgh... the moment I think I remember something, it slips through my grasp... I see a face, but I can't recognize it... it's all a blur," I groaned as I clutched my head again.

"It's okay, Maja. No need to stress yourself thinking about it. Besides, I'm sure it's nothing," Jeena said to me with a caring inflection in her voice, which made me smile.

"You're right... let it come back slowly... okay, let's get going. The longer we wait the more likely another Krawl attack could happen," I said.

"That's the spirit!" Rallen smiled as we then bid farewell to Radeese and we left his hut... but I had to wonder who that strange man was that I saw in my head. Wyterra, Krawl, and this strange person... somehow they all seemed connected, but on what scale?


	3. One Single Memory

**Chapter 3**

Once Maja and I went to the Excavation Site, I demonstrated how Child Forms could dig stuff up by telling Komainu to go and search the white lights that we saw. Upon the little red guy searching with his radar, the minerals emerged from the ground in a snap, Maja snatching a green one and nibbling at it to see how it tasted. I smiled when she gasped at how she was actually able to eat it and she cooed at the taste as she then gulped it down. And once she ate it, her stomach finally stopped growling.

"This looks like a spot we could find a fossil," I said as I told Komainu to check an area that looked freshly dug out and after searching a couple white lights, Komainu barked loudly and proudly as a large cube of dirt emerged from the ground, Maja gasping at it as I picked it up and it got sent into the Cosmolink. "Well, we got what we came for, let's go back to the ship to see how Jeena's coming along with her tinkering. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to use my Prizmod and all the Spectrobes that you can carry!" I smiled.

"That'd be amazing," Maja smiled back at me as we began our trek back to the cruiser... but I could tell that something was troubling Maja internally. She finally asked me a question as we entered the area that held the ruins. "Do you know of anyone I was close to in the past, Rallen? Anyone with orange hair?" Maja asked me.

"Well, there was one guy. His name was Krux and he's actually the leader of the Krawl and the one who made you in the first place... but he's pure evil. His face reflects his twisted demeanor, as it is partly human and partly Krawl, with half his hair being orange and the other side being Krawl black," I said, Maja sighing at that as she shook her head.

"Nevermind then... I thought I remembered seeing someone in my mind that had orange hair... but your description doesn't match what my mind says this guy looked like... obviously they are two separate people," Maja sighed.

"I do wonder who that could be then... you didn't really interact with any other humans other than Jeena and myself in the past," I admitted. I didn't know of anyone that Maja would be close to that fit her description, as there were a lot of humans I knew with orange hair. But I didn't know of anyone that Maja knew in her past and her recent amnesia wasn't helping matters... well, not true, as she now wanted to denounce her evil ways and be one of the good guys.

We finally entered the ship and I smiled at how Jeena had been waiting for us and she had the Prizmod in her hands, Maja smiling as Jeena then placed it on her arm with a smile.

"Okay, I have no idea if this Prizmod will be able to work outside of Nanairo, but it has in the past, so I suggest trying it now," Jeena said, Maja looking at the different buttons on it before pushing a button and gasping at how a little child form Spectrobe came out to greet her, which she smiled at who it was. It was a Koroko, a Spectrobe that was in the shape of a cube with each side of it being a different emotion, Maja smiling at the Spectrobe and looking at it intently.

"You look strangely unique... a perfect cube and it's a Spectrobe? Let's be friends," Maja smiled as she started to pet Koroko and he actually clicked a bit as he then turned his happy face to her in response.

"That means he likes you," I smiled at her.

"And as for you Rallen, come over here so we can get our little friend in the fossil back to normal," Jeena smiled at me as I then went over to the console and started to excavate the fossil from its stone casing, me noting the different tools for each excavation were 5 bombs, a laser, a hammer, a drill, a scanner, and a blowing tool. I started by scanning the fossil to see what was inside and smiled when it was a Torga, which was a Spectrobe that looked like a one-wheeled racing machine with the temperament to match. I then started by bombing areas that the fossil wasn't close to and after getting the rubble removed, I then started to use the laser to carefully get off the excess dirt that surrounded the fossil. Once it was all gone, I then used the drill to get rid of the excess dirt until I saw the fossil glow, which meant it was time to use the blower. I activated it and blew off the rest of the remaining dirt specks until the fossil was 100 percent clean.

"Now to awaken it. And just like with excavating it, awakening it is different than we're used to," Jeena said to me.

I smiled at that and proceeded to go to awakening the Torga, me seeing that it was actually a musical piece this time around that I had to make. I made the music as it told me to and the fossil shined brightly as Torga burst back to life and looked quite excited to be alive again. Once he woke up from his slumber, I then went into the database and had it so he'd join Komainu as part of mine and Jeena's search team, making sure that Jeena had to watch over the little guy in the process And once Jeena got the little Torga by her side, she smiled at it while Maja looked at it with a smile.

"This guy looks like he'd be good in a race," Maja smiled at him.

"He sure looks the part, doesn't he? Now let's get back to Radeese to see if he has any kind of information he could give us, primarily on how Jeena and I can evolve Spectrobes with this Cosmolink," I said.

"And I want to ask him if he knows anything about the person I keep on trying to remember... he definitely isn't evil, as his face screamed serenity and his robes were long and light brown... he looked almost like some kind of monk," Maja said.

"Well, I don't know if he'd know anything like that, but it's worth a shot," Jeena said as we proceeded back to the village and back to Radeese, where Maja proceeded to ask her question first.

"Excuse me, Radeese? Do you happen to know of anyone that has long orange hair, a kind and serene smile, and long robes of light brown?" Maja asked him.

"Hmm... I can only think of one person that fits that description... he was the former Spectrobe Master of Wyterra... but he's been missing for 30 years now... I have no idea where he could be, but he left the Cosmolink here and I know of a place you should visit to see if you may learn how to evolve your Spectrobes, Rallen and Jeena," Radeese said.

"Really? Where at?" Jeena asked.

"Across the Dawn Bridge at the west of town leads to a place called Sunny Grassland. And further beyond that lies the Valley of Mist, where the Spectrobe Master's cave lies, its doors only able to be opened by the owners of the Cosmolink. He kept most of his secrets hidden within, so I suggest going there as soon as possible, as two Adult Forms aren't going to last you very long," Radeese explained.

"Sounds like a deal," I smiled as I was about to leave before he gave one more piece of info.

"But from what I've heard, the bridge has been destroyed by some Krawl outside of the gate leading to the area. Before you can go on, you'll need to eliminate the Krawl and then wait for repairs to be done to the bridge. You may be Spectrobe Masters, but no one can leap across that gap and make it to the other side," Radeese said... but then Maja looked perplexed as she then started to do something that she didn't even notice until Jeena pointed it out.

"Maja... you're floating!" Jeena gawked.

"What? Whoa! I can fly? Sweet! Once we beat those Krawl, we don't even need to wait for repairs to be done to the bridge. I can just fly us right over it," Maja smiled.

"Sounds like a plan I can get behind," Jeena smiled.

"Just promise not to drop us," I smiled at her.

"Of course I'm going to hang on tightly. If I dropped you, I'd drop my only real friends," Maja smiled, me being a bit taken aback before smiling at her.

"Okay, then let's get going," Jeena smiled as we proceeded out of the place and towards the gate in question... but something would happen that would cause Maja to have a little bit of a side mission.

"Excuse me, miss Maja, was it?" an old man with a machine on his back asked her.

"Yes? What is it?" she asked him.

"Could you do me a favor? My apprentice, Gumark, went to the Excavation Site awhile ago and he hasn't come back for quite some time... could you go check on him to see if he's faring okay? I really hope he doesn't find one of those black minerals," the old man said.

"Of course! I'll go right away!" Maja said as she hovered off the ground and flew her way over to the Excavation Site, me and Jeena looking at each other with surprised expressions.

"This is a bit weird, isn't it, Jeena? One minute she's one of our worst enemies and the next she's our best friend... I didn't expect that me falling on her head would erase all of her memories," I admitted to Jeena with a frown.

"Well, it is a bit confusing to me as well... I mean, she is a Krawl after all, a creature created for the sole purpose of devouring entire planets. But she's been calling the Krawl hideous monsters and is willing to help us fight them... you'd think that if she's putting on a ruse that she'd have dropped the act by now, right? She really does have memory loss," Jeena sighed.

"Well, let's hope that if she does remember her past at some point, she'll still have the decency to stick with us," I smiled.

"Yeah, we can only hope... but I expect you to apologize to her at some point for causing her memory loss in the first place," Jeena said to me with sternness in her voice, me gasping and sighing in defeat.

"Alright, fine, but let's wait until after we find the cave, okay?" I asked Jeena.

"Okay. And so you know, I finished work on the antenna so we can communicate with NPP headquarters again. I haven't tested it yet, but the antenna is able to detect the portal that we arrived to this sector in. But I don't want to go home just yet. I want to stay here in case the Krawl do anything even more nasty. If they're attacking Wyterra, they could be attacking other planets too," Jeena said, me looking at her with seriousness and nodding my head.

"Deal. But once we get home, you're buying me pizza every Sunday for a month in payment, got it?" I smiled at her.

"Fine," Jeena smiled as she winked at me while sticking out her tongue.


	4. The Secret Cave of Evolution

**Chapter 4**

"Thanks for rescuing me, miss Maja. I didn't expect those Krawl to show up when I touched that mineral," Gumark said when I saved him from being killed by a mess of Krawl, me and my arsenal dealing with them in a snap. And the Spectrobe I chose to attack happened to be an Evolved from called Anuberos, which was a Spectrobe that looked like a giant dog with a long, skinny beak and fiery powers that formed into giant ribbon arms.

"You're welcome. Your boss told me that you may be in danger. And just letting you know, from what Radeese told me, stay away from Black Minerals. They attract Krawl," I said to him.

"Thanks. I can make it back on my own now," Gumark said as he proceeded back to town and I flew my way back, making it back to Rallen and Jeena's location in the area past the gate to see that they had handled quite a large Krawl just as I was entering the area.

"Hey, Maja. Think you could get us over this chasm now?" Rallen smiled.

"Of course," I smiled at him as I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist and I hovered both of us over the chasm, his Komainu retreating into his Cosmolink while I did this, which I was grateful for as I didn't want to do extra work in getting the Spectrobe kids over the chasm as well. "Now for you," I smiled at Jeena as I went over to her and picked her up by the waist next. Once we were safely across, I touched down on the ground again and the duo of Spectrobe Masters smirked at me.

"Let's move out to the cave," Rallen smiled.

"Lead the way," I smiled at him as he took the lead, Jeena and I following him as they made sure to search for fossils and minerals along the way, them managing to find 3 different fossils in the Sunny Grassland and a ton of blue and green minerals before we went to an area that looked a bit darker than the other areas, if only because of a strange mist surrounding it.

"I think this may be the Valley of Mist that Radeese mentioned. The cave should be nearby," Rallen said, us going forward a bit before I smelled the scent of monsters nearby.

"I smell Krawl nearby... multiple little ones," I said as I took up a battle stance and we moved forward some more, the Krawl soon arriving and there being 4 small ones that were shaped like spheres, me activating the Prizmod to bring out a sword while also calling out a different Sepctrobe, this one being an Evolved form called Doma-Boma, which was an imposing tank of massive proportions! He immediately shot multiple rounds at the smaller Krawl and demolished them all with a single hit, me gasping as I smelled something else. "Um... guys? I smell an even stronger Krawl nearby... its smell is the most rancid so far! It's gotta be a big one!" I said with concern.

"You're not wrong, Maja. These readings are off the charts!" Jeena gawked as we moved forward slightly and then heard a loud roar from over the cliff. And what came over the cliff afterwards? A gigantic Krawl that stood at least 30 feet tall and looked quite nasty in appearance with a bulbous yellow orb on its head and giant clawed feet and hands!

"Iku Ze! Let's do this!" Rallen exclaimed as he and Jeena took control of their weapons and Spectrobes while I looked at the monster with awe.

"The Krawl can reach a size this massive?! Time to lay this beast to rest! Doma-Boma! Attack!" I exclaimed, the giant tank Spectrobe complying and shooting a giant missile at the giant monster and the blast being so powerful that it made the beast stumble over and onto its back, prompting Jeena and Rallen to attack it with their swords and their Spectrobes, the giant Krawl roaring in pain as it then evaporated into the air, me sighing at this and looking nearby at something that intrigued me.

"Hey, guys? Is it just me, or does this trench over here look like a crash site?" I asked the duo, them coming over and inspecting it as well.

"Yeah, it looks like something crashed here in the past, but what was it?" Jeena asked.

"I don't know, but it isn't important now. Let's get going to that cave," Rallen said, him leading us to the cave in question and, upon Rallen and Jeena getting close to it, their Cosmolinks glowed in response and the door then opened up in a snap.

"It must've responded to your Cosmolinks. Let's go see what's inside," I said with a smile as I was about to follow them inside, but then the same thing happened to me that happened back at the ruins.

"Oh come on! I want to see what's in there too! Dammit!" I groaned as I saw that there was a barrier in this cave as well that kept Krawl out of it.

"Sorry, Maja... you can keep an eye out for us while we explore, okay?" Jeena said with concern.

"Okay... I'll do that," I sighed as I petted Koroko with a frown, him showing a face that turned to sad, which made me smile.

"I know, I'm upset too... why am I not allowed to go into these places? And what the heck do I have to do with Wyterra's former Spectrobe Master? And what kind of life did I have in the past with the Krawl?... I can't think straight and whenever I try to remember the Spectrobe Master, all I get is just a glimpse... maybe if I tried to think of names that I knew of... hmm... Krux... what kind of person is he?" I sighed as I tried to think of who this Krux guy was that Rallen mentioned.

When I thought for awhile, I suddenly gasped when I saw a person in my memories that matched Rallen's description of what Krux looked like. Half his face human, half his face Krawl. An angry look in his eyes, an enigmatic white mask in his grasp... and wearing the darkest robes of anyone I'd seen. He also had immense power and I somehow felt that he was strong. Immeasurably strong. "Krux... who is he?" I sighed again as I then heard Rallen and Jeena emerge from the ruins from behind me.

"You trying to remember your past?" Rallen asked.

"Yeah... I finally remember what Krux looked like... and you were right. He does look like a monster... but then again, I'm one as well, aren't I?" I sighed as I looked at my purple fingers with a sigh.

"You're not a monster if you don't want to be one, Maja. You have the choice to be what you want to be," Jeena said with a smile as I felt her hug me from behind, me smiling at her embrace and humming at it.

"Thank you... Jeena, Rallen," I smiled at them as I could've sworn I felt some tears roll down my cheeks. "So what did you find in there?" I asked them.

"Well, we found four things. Firstly, we found an old memo disk that belonged to the Spectrobe Master. Then we found a badge of an NPP officer, which we'll need to find out who it belonged to. Then we found a glowing Spectrobe fossil. And upon touching it, we found out that the pedestal in there could be used to evolve Spectrobes with these special minerals," Jeena said as she produced a teardrop-shaped mineral that looked gorgeous, mostly because it was prismatic and it had multiple rainbow colors to it, but primarily a golden hue.

"It looks gorgeous..." I gawked at it, as it looked like the prettiest thing I'd ever seen.

"We've discovered that feeding a Spectrobe this mineral will allow them to evolve into their next powerful stage. We need to report back to Radeese to see where to move on from here," Rallen said with a smile.

"Okay, let's head back then," I smiled as Koroko went along with us on our way back, us seeing that the same guy that asked me to find Gumark was just finishing up work on the bridge as we arrived.

"Oh, Maja and the Spectrobe Masters! I see you've returned. I was meaning to give this to you. It's something the former Spectrobe Master entrusted me with long ago. It's a special kind of adaptation that you can use to interact with your Spectrobes and feed them minerals in a database," he said with a smile as he handed Jeena a special cube.

"Wow, thanks!... Yet we never even learned your name," Jeena smirked.

"Oh how silly of me! My name is Kotetsu, and I was responsible for crafting special weapons for the Spectrobe Master all those years ago," he smiled widely.

"Impressive," Jeena smirked at that with a smile as we proceeded back to Haven Village and we would begin to talk to Radeese once more.

Once we got back to Radeese, Jeena said she needed to go back to the ship to install the new upgrades into the database so that meant Rallen and I were seeing Radeese on our own. "Hello again, friends... where'd Jeena go?" Radeese asked.

"Well, we found out how to evolve Spectrobes, but Jeena needed to go update our systems so we could be able to evolve them on our ship," Rallen said with a smile.

"I see. I would like to request something in the meantime. The Former Spectrobe Master didn't work alone, as he had a partner named Kamtoga. He should be on Planet Doldogo. But I fear that the Krawl aren't just attacking our planet. I suggest evolving a fire type Spectrobe to an Adult form before you head out, as the Krawl on that planet are of the plant property," Radeese said.

"The former Spectrobe Master's partner? Maybe he knows something about him that he could tell me! I need to find him! Please, give us the coordinates and we promise to get an adult fire spectrobe and be on our way!" I said with excitement, Radeese smiling and giving us the coordinates and me rushing out in flash, Rallen latching onto my feet as I flew back to the ship in a frenzy.

"Calm down, Maja, he's not going to be going anywhere anytime soon, you know?" Rallen smiled at me.

"Maybe, but he might know something about this mystery person I see in my memories!" I said with a smile as we entered the ship and saw that Jeena had already awoken multiple different Spectrobes in the meantime. She now had a turtle Spectrobe, one that looked like a puffy sheep, a Spectrobe pair that looked like a pair of shoes, and a fox-like Spectrobe with long ears. And on top of that, the fossil they found before had turned into a cute red and white monkey.

"We've got coordinates to another planet that may be under attack by the Krawl and Radeese suggested we evolve a fire type Spectrobe to add to our arsenal on our trip to Doldogo," Rallen said to Jeena.

"Better yet, how about two? Because I found another evolve mineral during my way back here," Jeena smiled.

"Cool! That way both of us can have a Fire Type," Rallen smiled.

"Okay, but which two do we use it on? We have Komainu, Zaza, Zen, and Torga," Jeena said.

"Maybe Torga and Zaza? They look like they could do serious damage when they evolve," I suggested.

"Okay then, are you alright with that, Rallen?" Jeena smiled.

"Only if I can get Torga to control for a change," Rallen smiled.

"Fair enough," Jeena smirked as she went into the database and I gasped at how she actually entered the incubator on her own out of nowhere! I was so flabbergasted I didn't even realize that she had evolved the two Spectrobes already before she then came out again!

"That looked SO COOL!" I said with a giddy face at how awesome that looked.

"I know, right? Kotetsu's expansion cube made it so that we can now enter the incubator in the Database on a whim!" Jeena smirked.

"Awesome! Now let's get off to Doldogo, but only after we call back to HQ," Rallen said.

"Yeah, and we still need to mention your condition, Maja," Jeena said to me.

"I'm well aware," I said to her with a small smile.


	5. Doldogo Blues

**Chapter 5**

Jeena immediately got the transmission up and going as she contacted our commander, his face appearing on the console once we did so. "Rallen, Jeena! Is that you? Do you copy?" Grant asked.

"Yes, we hear you, Commander! Oh, we're so glad to hear your voice," Jeena said with a smile as Maja stayed back.

"Are you okay?" Commander Grant asked.

"We're fine sir. We happened to get sent into a portal and during the process, one of the High Krawl invaded our ship and suddenly lost all of her memories," Rallen said.

"Hmm... so they did traverse the portal..." Grant said to himself, me confused at that part.

"Commander? You read?" Jeena asked.

"Yes, I'm still here... you say that a female High Krawl lost her memories? You're absolutely sure?" Grant asked.

"You can meet her now if you want," Jeena smiled as she stepped back and Maja smiled as she gently sat down in the chair.

"Um... hello sir," Maja said with a bit of shyness.

"So, you say you remember nothing?" Grant asked.

"Only what Rallen and Jeena have told me... from what they say I used to be evil... but I don't want to be evil anymore. I want to help defeat these Krawl. And the Krawl are attacking the system we're currently in, the Kaio System. Why I have no clue, but I can't remember anything so I don't know what they're planning," Maja said with seriousness.

"You said Krawl in the Kai- Sys-" Grant was about to say before the link suddenly died.

"The link's dead... that was odd, wasn't it?" Jeena asked.

"You mean when he said that thing about traversing a portal?" Maja asked.

"Yeah, how would he have known about the portal even though he sent us out to the location with no idea of what the sector held?" Jeena asked.

"Eh, you're overthinking things, girls. Besides, we need to go find this Kamtoga guy and get to Doldogo. I wonder what kind of planet it'd be," I said, trying to get them to think of the main issue.

"Yeah, you're right. Maja, get strapped into our passenger seat, we're going to go for a ride," Jeena said.

"Okay," Maja smiled as she got into the passenger seat and strapped in as Jeena and I did the same thing before we input the coordinates for Doldogo and proceeded to fly our way over there. When we got to the planet, we were in awe by how it looked. A giant ring of energy surrounded the smaller planet that looked to be absolutely covered in plant life! We went to the coordinates of the main town on the place and we landed in a small place just outside the village and across what looked to be a small stream.

"Ah... smell that sweet forest air," Maja smiled as she exited the cockpit and we were about to move forward before she scrunched her nose at something. "Wait... something's not right with this water... Whoa! Have a look at this!" Maja exclaimed when she saw the river, me and Jeena listening and rushing to her to see something we didn't expect. The river wasn't made of water. It looked to be made of poison! "This water is being poisoned by Krawl... I can smell their stench inside of this river," Maja groaned as we then got noticed by a villager.

"Hey, who are you guys? And why does one of you look like the monsters that are in the forest?!" he asked, Maja sighing at that and looking at the man with a frown.

"Please don't lump me in with those disgusting creatures. I don't like being classified as one anymore than you do," Maja frowned at him.

"Oh... sorry... wait, what are those things by your feet?" the guy asked.

"They're Spectrobes. Do you know where we may find the one in charge in this village?" Jeena asked.

"You must mean Greta. She's in the house in the center of town, fashioned out of a large hollow tree," the man said.

"Thanks," I said as we went to the large tree and knocked on the door, wondering if she was in.

"Come in," I heard a voice say on the other side. A deep woman voice. We went inside and she turned around at us while speaking in an annoyed fashion. "And just where did you run off to, HUH?!" the woman asked, her spooking me a bit when she yelled like that, her only then looking surprised by our group.

"Hmm?! I don't know who you are and I don't like strangers. Who are you?" Greta asked.

"Sorry to intrude, miss. I'm Jeena and this is Rallen, we're NPP officers," Jeena said as she showed her ID on her badge that was on her hand, same with me. Maja then timidly approached the large woman with orange hair and looked a bit concerned.

"I-I don't mean to be rude, but do you know if a man named Kamtoga had come here recently?" Maja asked.

"And why would I tell you that? You look like the-" Greta was about to say before I stuck up for Maja.

"Look, she doesn't like being compared to the Krawl and she doesn't even remember her life from five hours ago and backwards. So please, tell us, have you seen Kamtoga?" I asked her.

"I've actually been trying to contact Kamtoga myself! It's a complete disaster out in the forest! The Krawl are invading the forest and now they're starting to contaminate our rivers with poison. We've had to resort to storing our water since they started to poison the rivers," Greta said.

"That sounds bad. But what was that thing you mentioned before? When you mistook us for someone else?" Jeena asked.

"Well, my daughter, Salia, ran into the forest to protect it. She'd risk her life for that forest. I don't really like to rely on strangers, but I see you all have Spectrobes on you. Could I entrust you to try and find her and see about trying to fix the rivers?" Greta asked.

"We'll find her, we promise," Maja said as she then left the place and I went after her, Maja sighing as Jeena and I caught up with her afterwards. "Sorry... I'm just... why does everyone have to lump me in with the Krawl? I get I'm the same species, but if I'm willingly among humans, it would be obvious I'm not going to attack, right?" Maja groaned in frustration.

"It's because there has never been a single instance of a good Krawl in the past. You're pretty much the only good Krawl in existence, so people are going to be suspicious of you no matter where we go... I don't like it anymore than you do, Maja. You deserve better treatment," I said to her, Maja sniffling and smiling at me for the first time in awhile. And instead of in the past when she would mock me after smiling, this new Maja did something different. She approached me and then kissed me on the cheek, me in shock that she did that as was Jeena. Now it was official. The past Maja would never think of trying to kiss me of all people! She really was changed and she really wasn't acting anything.

"That... uh..." Maja said as she blushed pink on her purple skin.

"It's fine. It felt nice," I admitted to her.

"Mm," Maja smiled as Jeena looked at me with a smile.

"Okay, lovebirds, let's go find Salia and stop screwing around," Jeena smiled at us.

"R-Right," Maja said with a blush again as we continued forward, making sure to have our Spectrobes search the ground for more minerals and fossils.


	6. Saving the Planet, One River at a Time

**Chapter 6**

After Rallen and Jeena found numerous minerals, 3 Evolution minerals, and 3 different fossils, I decided to have Koroko search for a couple of minerals and we shared the haul. I had a yellow mineral and he enjoyed eating an orange mineral in the process. But then we came upon an open area and we gawked at what awaited us. "No! Stop! Get away from this sacred tree!" a girl exclaimed as I saw her and saw she also had orange hair on her. I had to wonder how many different people had orange hair on them in this galaxy.

I didn't question it anyways as I immediately sent out Anuberos while Rallen and Jeena sent out Torgazar and Zazane respectively, our Spectrobes slicing and burning through the flower-like Krawl with ease while managing to not burn the landscape in the process. "Wow... they're using fire attacks yet the plants are unaffected!" the girl said in shock.

"That's the power of the Spectrobes for you... you must be Salia, right?" Jeena asked with a smile.

"Yes, did mother send you to fetch me?" she asked.

"Yeah, she did... do you know why the rivers are being poisoned and how to stop it?" I asked her, the girl sighing and looking behind her at something that I was shocked by. A gigantic tree was behind her. And it looked to be suffering from the poisonous waters, as its limbs and bark were turning purple by the second. "That's horrid... are the Krawl doing this to the tree?" I asked her.

"Yes, they are... and it's not just any tree. This tree is what gives this entire planet life. The water that passes through it from all over immediately becomes purer than any water in the universe. But there are three Krawl that are polluting the three water sources that deliver water to this tree. If we were to lose this tree, all life on Doldogo would slowly die off," Salia said with sadness in her eyes.

"Where are these Krawl? We're here to put an end to them," I said to her with grit in my eyes.

"I saw the Krawl in three different areas. The closest is in Serenity Woods, just to the east of this place. Then after that is to the north, in Triple Falls. And the third and final one is to the west. You'll need to go past Thunder Crag and through Glow Moss Cave to reach High Meadow, where the final poisonous Krawl awaits," Salia said.

"Okay. You should get back to the village. We'll handle things from here. Don't worry, we'll make sure this tree not only survives, but thrives!" I said to Salia.

"Thank you, miss... it's nice to know that not all Krawl are monstrous," Salia said, her words making me smile for the first time in awhile. She was a stranger, yet she was treating me like an actual person and not a monster. I had to rescue this tree now, no matter what!

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" I exclaimed at Rallen and Jeena, all of us rushing off to Serenity Woods to find the first Krawl, us going into the area and me sniffing the air for the poison provider. I eventually found it right in the water of the area, it actually pumping the water with poison it produced from numerous pores all over its grotesque body.

"Just like she said, the Krawl are out to poison every last bit of the river! Let's get this guy! Iku Ze!" Rallen exclaimed his catch phrase again as we all summoned our Spectrobes and began our assault. Anuberos quickly attacked with its fiery appendages and the Krawl looked to be in pain as it tried to shoot poison at me in particular, which I dodged out of the way of as Torgazar and Zazane then attacked the monster as well, the giant Krawl roaring before evaporating into thin air. Once it did that, the water immediately regained its purity slowly but surely, meaning we had made the tree suffer much less.

"Okay, that's one down and two to go," I said with a serious tone in my voice.

"You're awfully concerned about this, aren't you, Maja?" Jeena noted.

"Of course! That girl is the only stranger on this planet so far that's complimented me and not treated me like a monster at first glance! I want to help the tree and help her at the same time!" I said to her.

"Then let's get going on our way to the next river!" Rallen said as we began our way back. But we still had our Child Forms search the area for anything of interest on our way back to the giant tree, finding some more fossils in the process as well as a bunch of minerals that we kept, me sampling one in question, that being one that was shaped like a green heart. And when I ate it, I gasped at how it tasted extremely sweet!

"Mmm! That mineral was super sweet!" I smiled at the taste of it.

"If you think that tasted sweet, you should taste a Nanairo Ice Cream Sundae," Jeena smiled.

"Ice Cream? What's that supposed to be?" I asked, not knowing what the substance was.

"One of the sweetest and most varied type of dessert that humans make. You should try it," Rallen smiled.

"Maybe when our adventures are done," I smiled at him with a wink as we went to the next area, which was Triple Falls. Honestly when I kissed him earlier, it was more than me showing him thanks. For some odd reason, I actually found a strange attraction to Rallen. He and Jeena were extremely kind and trusting of me and I kind of already knew that boys liked girls for some odd reason. And I could tell that he liked me kissing him as well.

"Do you... are you hitting on me?" Rallen asked.

"Um... kind of?" I said with a smile.

"Like I said, focus, lovebirds," Jeena smiled in protest.

"Fine," I said as we reached the water source and we saw the poisonous Krawl here was the same as the previous one.

"When we finish this one, we need to have a small talk," Rallen said to me.

"Fair enough," I smiled at him as I activated the Prizmod and decided to have a different Spectrobe come out, it being something called Hanebakuon. I summoned it and was shocked by what it looked like. It looked like a giant, rectangular flying Spectrobe of purple with yellow spikes on its body! And when it saw the Krawl, it flew over to it and it produced a sound so loud and insane that it blasted the Krawl to kingdom come in just one attack!

"Whoa! Now THAT was awesome!" I exclaimed, my hair standing up all over my body, which made me confused at how my skin also stood up almost like I was covered in spikes all over now.

"I'll say. You look like a giant pincushion now!" Jeena smirked at me.

"Now we can talk, right?" Rallen smiled at me.

"Okay, go ahead and start," I smiled at him.

"When you said yes to hitting on me, I have to ask... do you have a crush on me?" Rallen asked. I smiled and nodded at him with a blush, though my eyes were pretty much the only visible part of my face because of my hair standing up all over. "And I guess you want us to be in a relationship? Despite the species difference?" Rallen asked.

"I don't care about the species difference, Rallen. I look human minus skin color, don't I? Besides, species shouldn't matter so long as we both like each other, right?" I smiled at him happily.

"Right. Well, I think that we could be a couple if you want," Rallen smiled at me, my inner self screaming in glee as I was about to hug him, but I quickly stopped myself when I remembered my body was still sharp all over.

"If only I wasn't so full of dagger points all over my body, I'd hug you all over right now!" I smiled at him with happiness in my voice.

"I agree, we need to find some way to get your hair to not be full of spikes all over... it probably happened because of you getting spooked by Hanebakuon. And it spooked me too the first time he used that attack around me. He likes to show off," Rallen smiled.

"Maybe if I were to get some water sprayed on me, then I'd be able to get my hair non-spiky. But I don't want to risk hurting the water that the tree has, so I'd like it if one of your Spectrobes could spray me with some water," I smiled at him.

"Well, that Prizmod contains a watery Spectrobe called Daigyo. It could help douse you if you bring it out, but he's an Evolved form Spectrobe, so you'd need to be in a battle first," Jeena smiled at me.

"Okay," I smiled as we just then happened upon a bunch of Krawl, me bringing out Daigyo immediately and him looking to be confused as to how to proceed. "Daigyo? My allies will handle the Krawl. Could you spray some water on me? Gently if possible?" I smiled at the fish-looking Spectrobe. He glugged a bit and then spat a stream of water at me, which I smiled at how it was controlled and how my spikes got droopy and my skin returned to normal again. "Thanks," I smiled at him as Rallen and Jeena had finished off the Krawl in front of me.

"Now let's move on," Jeena said as we continued forward through Thunder Crag and we were stopped by a large gap in our way. "I see some rocks up there that might make a good bridge. You guys hang down here, I'm going to dislodge them," I smiled as I flew up to the rocks and pulled out one tiny rock, the giant stones then falling off of the cliff and forming into a bridge for Rallen and Jeena to use.

"Thanks, hon," Rallen smiled at me. I squealed at that and flew over to him and hugged him for real.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," I smiled at him.

"Let's go handle that last Krawl," Rallen smiled at me afterwards while Jeena simply smiled at our antics.

* * *

Once we took care of the final Krawl polluting the rivers, our group backtracked to the area that held the giant tree, collecting a ton of minerals on the way back and two more fossils as well. And once we returned, we saw the fruits of our loins. The tree was no longer poisoned. It was actually shimmering with life and I smiled at how it smelled pure and clean. "We did it. Look at that. We saved the entire planet..." I smiled at the tree in front of us. And we then heard a voice from behind us.

"And it's not even at full health yet! If you stick around you'll see what I mean!" said the voice of Salia as she appeared from behind us with Greta by her side. "We saw that the water had cleared up, so we wanted to come and see it for ourselves," Salia smiled at the tree and us. "I believe that trees have feelings, just like us. It's joyful again, thanks to you all," Salia smiled at us. I smirked and blushed at that.

"Hehe, well, never would've thought it to look at you lot, but you got substance kids, I'll give ya that. Things'll be getting back to normal in this forest, that's for sure... and sorry for jumping to conclusions when I saw you at first, miss Maja. Salia told me you were the one to take initiative when you learned the tree was being poisoned. Once the water cleared up, the whole village collectively agreed that you and your companions were to thank for it," Greta smiled at me, which also made me smile.

"Thanks," I smiled at them happily. But then I looked behind me and saw something at the base of the tree that I hadn't before. "What's that thing lead to? It looks like some kind of elevator," I gawked at it.

"That? It leads to the Green Ruins. I remember that I once explored that place with the Spectrobe Master a long time ago. And I don't mean to brag, but I was much more pretty back in the day," Greta smiled.

"Okay, um, do you think that we could try exploring them? Sounds like it may hold some kind of loot! Like a treasure hoard!" I smiled at the thought of it.

"Go ahead if ya want, my exploring days are long behind me," Greta smiled as she and Salia then proceeded back to the village.

"I agree with you, Maja, I think we should go into these ruins and explore," Jeena smiled at me.

"Hehe, this is gonna be fun! Last one in there's a rotten egg!" Rallen exclaimed.

"Oh yeah? Haha!" I laughed as I rushed after him with Jeena being the straggler.


	7. Exploring the Green Ruins

**Chapter 7**

Upon us entering the ruins and going down the elevator, Maja breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped forward with a smile. "Finally, a set of ruins that doesn't kick me out of them!" she smiled confidently.

"Tell me about it... wait, look at this!" Jeena gawked as she showed off something on the walls. I was amazed as well. It was pictoglyphs of ancient humans living in harmony with many different Spectrobes. "Amazing... they lived in harmony with Spectrobes... many years ago from the looks of it..." Jeena smiled at the murals as I then noticed something on the ground. It was a Spectrobe fossil!... But it was glowing brightly for some odd reason. I couldn't help myself as I touched it, wondering what would happen when I did so. And when I did, I gasped as I saw a vision play out before me. It was a vision of the Spectrobe Master!

He started to recite some of the words that talked of a Spectrobe of great power bringing an end to a long war against what I could only assume to be a massive army of Krawl. "Five shards, five planets, five sites. And one of them is right here in these ruins," the Spectrobe Master said, me feeling at ease from hearing his voice as I noted that, aside from looking skinnier than before, Greta looked mostly unchanged. "You must have an opinion on this Greta. What do you think?" he asked her gently, Greta stammering for a bit before saying something.

"Well, I just kinda think that maybe we should leave them be here... like we should let him keep resting until we really do need to call on him, right?" Greta smiled.

"Hehe, I couldn't agree more with you... still, the words Beast King... what kind of creature could it be?" he asked before the vision ended and I gasped, Maja and Jeena gasping as well as if they saw it as well.

"Did you see the vision too, Maja?" Jeena asked in shock.

"Yeah, I did... I saw the Spectrobe Master... his voice sounded so calm and serene... it was almost like a dream," she gawked at it.

"It wasn't a dream, it was a vision... but that shard he mentioned. It sounds interesting. What do you say we go deeper into this place and try to find it? Just to make sure it's safe?" I smiled. Maja then sniffed the air and gasped.

"You're right, Rallen! I can smell them. Krawl are in these ruins! Let's go forward!" Maja said as I pocketed the fossil in my Cosmolink and Jeena and I got serious as we followed after Maja deeper into the ruins, us entering another room and the door suddenly closing shut on us as Krawl came into the area. Maja brought out a different Spectrobe to fight this time, which happened to be Darutake, a large and imposing flying Spectrobe that was a Corona property Spectrobe in Nanairo. But when he came out, he attacked the Krawl and I saw that his power wasn't fire in the Kaio system. It was Earth-based! And despite the Krawl being Grass type, he managed to do quite a bit of damage to them alongside mine and Jeena's Spectrobes in Zazane and Torgazar!

"Nice job, Darutake!" Maja smiled at him as the door behind us opened up again and we saw that the next area was a dead-end. "Hmm... you see that hole there? Maybe Koroko can go and venture inside there. He might find something to open the door," Maja smiled.

"Good idea, Maja," I smiled at her as Koroko then started to roll his cubed body into the small hole and, after waiting for a bit, we heard him hit a switch and a door suddenly opened up to our side! "Alright! Door's opened, let's get going!" I smirked as we rushed forward and into the next room, us surprised at the next room having more minerals as well as another dead-end and a hole in the side. But there were also some purple lights in the ground that we knew had to be Black Minerals.

"Maja, you and Koroko can help Rallen find more minerals, but avoid the purple ones. I'm going to have the Tobasu twins go into that hole to try and find a way to open the door," Jeena said.

"Okay, let's do this, Maja," I smiled at her.

"Of course, babe," she smiled at me as we then started to search for the regular minerals and some more fossils, but we made sure not to grab any Black Minerals or excavate any. Once we got them all minus the black minerals, we saw that the Tobasu twins had opened up the door in front of us and we were able to go forward again. We then proceeded down the corridors until we reached a room that had the doors close on us again, the room getting Krawl again and our group handling them with relative ease as it was a bunch of spherical ones.

Once the Krawl were defeated and the door behind us rose up again, the ground revealed two different totems of sorts and we saw the door to the lower parts of the ruins was still shut tight. "Hmm... two pedestals, two totems. Want to bet that putting them on the pedestals will open the door?" Maja smirked widely.

"No, I don't, because I know I'd lose," I smiled at her as I picked up one of the totems and Jeena handled the other one, us putting them on the pedestals and the door then glowing brightly and opening in a snap. But once it opened, Maja gasped at something.

"I smell a giant Krawl at the bottom of this elevator! It smells as disgusting as the giant Krawl back on Wyterra! Be careful, everyone!" Maja said with concern. We listened and proceeded into the elevator to the lower levels, seeing that there was, in fact, a gigantic Krawl down here. And it looked like a giant faceless mole with two gigantic spinning drill horns where its mouth would be!

"Let's do this! Iku Ze!" I exclaimed as I called forth Spikan and Jeena called Zazane. In the meantime, Maja summoned Hanebakuon. She looked at him with seriousness this time and spoke to him.

"This time, don't belt out that noise until after I cover my ears, okay?" she smiled at him. The Spectrobe smirked at this and Maja covered her ears while the monster tried to rush after Zazane and Jeena, both of them getting out of the way and the giant Krawl getting its horns stuck in the wall! "NOW!" Maja exclaimed, the flying sound Spectrobe getting behind the giant Krawl and belting out its obnoxiously loud sound waves, Maja smiling at how her hair didn't stand up this time and how the giant Krawl actually got quite hurt from the attack. But he wasn't down and out as he roared loudly and started to spew out poison attacks from his backside, which homed in on Spikan slowly before Zazane sent a fire breath attack at the poison clouds and it evaporated immediately. Once this happened, Jeena then proceeded to attack the beast with some sword swings until the giant monster finally roared in pain and disintegrated into the air. And once that happened, we gasped at how a secret door suddenly opened on one end of the room, opposite of the elevator!

"Let's go and see what this shard looks like," I smiled as we went into the room and Maja gawked at something I didn't know about for once. And the shard in question? It was in the shape of a dragon-like head and it was blue, but it glowed red on occasion for some reason.

"The power... the sheer power coming from that shard... it's insane! And this is just one of five! It's actually making my legs incapable of movement..." Maja gawked.

"It must be from an Ultimate Form Spectrobe... hmm.." I thought as I suddenly felt my arms going to pick up the shard, Jeena gasping as the shard then entered my Cosmolink all on its own!

"Rallen! What are you thinking?! Didn't anyone tell you to look before you leap?" Jeena scolded me.

"S-Sorry, but for some reason, I felt this thing calling out to me... almost as if it wanted me to grab it... I couldn't control myself," I admitted.

"Well, we can't change that... but maybe we can ask Greta about it... as well as the part about that strange glow that it had," Maja said.

"I agree," Jeena said as we proceeded back out of the ruins from the way we came in, that being none other than a strange warp pad that appeared in the ruins along with us.


	8. The Commander's Secret

**Chapter 8**

Once we returned back to the village, we went into Greta's hut and she looked at us with a smile on her face. And the fact that the villagers smiled at me all the way back was a nice change. Greta and Salia smiled upon seeing us and started to speak. "Nice to see you back safe and sound. Did you happen to find anything in the ruins?" Greta smiled at us.

"Actually, yes. And they consisted of tons of minerals, a gigantic Krawl at the bottom of it, and we got a strange shard that exudes incredible power," Jeena smiled as Rallen presented it and Greta gawked at it.

"Goodness! Now I remember! It's all flooding back to me!... But something's different about it..." Greta exclaimed before looking at it in confusion.

"What is it?" Rallen asked.

"Well, may be a trick of the memory, but, when I last saw it, the glow wasn't quite as bright as it is now," Greta said with confusion.

"It is unusually bright... maybe Radeese would know more about it. After all, he knew the Spectrobe Master personally," I said.

"Good idea, Maja. Besides, we have some Spectrobes to revive from fossils and then have them evolve into battle-ready Spectrobes," Rallen smiled.

"I agree, let's get back to the ship and on our way to Wyterra," I smiled at him with a wink.

"Teehee, young love, huh?" Salia giggled.

"Yes," I smiled back at her as Rallen put the shard back in the Cosmolink and we then bid farewell to the duo and left for the ship. Rallen and Jeena then started to excavate, awaken, and evolve numerous different Spectrobes until they had a full arsenal to work with on them. Rallen was now in control of a Sabogar, Zappira, and Zuwaja for battle and a cute little bulb Spectrobe named Hananomi for a searcher. And Jeena was in control of a Gazen, evolved Tobasu into Ketobasu, same with Zora into Bazora. And her new child form was a cute little seed-shaped Spectrobe called Dongu, who had one of the cutest little faces of all!

"Okay, we've still got quite a few evolve minerals on us, so I suggest we keep them for future evolutions," Rallen smiled.

"Um... could I possibly taste one? Just to see what happens?" I asked with honesty.

"Well, okay. It may actually help you remember something, who knows?" Jeena smiled as she gave me an evolution mineral and I held it in my grasp before placing it in my mouth. And when I started to eat it, I gasped as something actually came into my memory! I saw three different characters that looked similar to me in that they were Krawl and they had a humanoid appearance!

"I... I see other creatures like me... humanoid Krawl of different colors... One blue and skinny, another red with a regal look, and the last green with a bulbous body... I don't know their names, but they all look important to me..." I said in shock as I saw them all.

"You're probably thinking of the other 3 High Krawl," Rallen said to me.

"There were other High Krawl?" I gawked.

"The blue one was Jado and he actually survived my initial encounter with him and then hid on my ship and absorbed the other High Krawl's powers when they were beaten in the past. This isn't your first time you've been nominated to High Krawl, believe it or not," Rallen said, me sighing and curling my fists at the fact that one of my former accomplices would do something as horrid as that. "The red one was Gelberus and he was able to make flames on a whim. And the third was Gronos, whose first move in his previous plan included devouring all of the non-awakened Spectrobe fossils we had in storage and then trying to devour the gravity on Ziba's moons. If he'd have succeeded, Ziba would've been destroyed," Rallen explained.

"So all of them are just as evil as Krux?... So I was as evil as they were at one point... I surely hope I don't ever encounter Krux for the rest my life," I groaned.

"Well, we should get going back to Radeese. But first, I think we should try to contact NPP HQ again," Jeena said as we went to the front of the ship and we tried to connect back to Rallen and Jeena's boss again.

"Hello? Rallen? Jeena, do you copy?" asked a voice that I knew wasn't Grant's. It belonged to someone that sounded much younger.

"Hey, Harry. How's things back home?" Jeena asked him.

"Oh, I'm so relieved to hear your voice! Are you guys okay?" Harry asked, me confused at that.

"Wait... didn't the Commander tell you that we were sent through a portal?" I asked, Harry looking confused by the voice.

"Who's that? Do you have someone on the ship with you guys? And what do you mean by a portal?" Harry asked.

"Well... I can't believe Commander Grant didn't mention it to you. Well, we went through a portal around Sector W and, in the process, one of the High Krawl lost all of her memories and is now joining us in fighting against the Krawl," Jeena said.

"Female High Krawl? You mean Maja, right? Is that her who spoke?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that was my voice... it's kind of weird that Commander Grant didn't tell you anything. After all, we contacted him hours ago. Where is he anyways?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know myself... but you say you were sent through a portal?... I want to share something with you guys. Promise to keep it a secret?" Harry asked.

"Nanairo ice cream sundaes for a year if any of us blabs," Rallen smiled.

"Whoa! You mean it? I love those things!... Ahem... anyways, around 30 or so years ago, it seems that a junior officer disappeared on assignment out there," Harry said as Rallen produced the badge he found in the Cave of Evolution.

"Do you know who it was?" Jeena asked.

"You sitting down? It was Grant!" Harry said, me gasping as Rallen and Jeena jumped from their seats at this new information.

"Wait a second... is this his old badge?!" Rallen gawked at the badge he held in his person, the connection accidentally being cut in the process. "This doesn't make any sense! Why would Commander Grant have us go to that sector if he knew the risks beforehand? Especially since he's been here before?" Rallen growled in frustration.

"Hon, calm down. We can worry about that later. Right now the most important thing is that we head back to Radeese, okay?" I said as I put my hand on Rallen's shoulder, him sighing and calming down at that.

"You're right... let's get back to Wyterra," Rallen said with a sigh.


	9. K-K-Kogoeria Is C-C-Cold

**Chapter 9**

After we got back to Wyterra, Jeena, Maja, and I proceeded down to the village and we smiled at how they had actually finished repairing the village completely. Now the houses and arches were back to normal and the fountain in the town center actually had a diagram of the various planets in the Kaio System... at least, that's what my interpretation of it was. We then went to Radeese's hut and he smiled at our presence.

"I see you've returned from Doldogo. Did you happen to find Kamtoga?" he asked.

"No, he wasn't there. But we did manage to rescue the entire planet from the Krawl as well as found a strange shard within the Green Ruins... and I have a feeling the Krawl were trying to go after this shard specifically, as they were trying to poison the giant tree that housed the ruins," Maja said to him.

"You must mean the Tree of Life! You have done a great deed by saving that tree, heroes... by the way, you said a strange shard? Would you be referring to the shards of the king?" Radeese questioned.

"If you mean Beast King, yes. Here, I have it with me," I said as I showed him the shard and he gawked at it.

"I... Good heavens!" he exclaimed, us knowing that didn't sound good. "This red glow, do you know what it means?! It's... It's an omen of impending doom!" Our group gasped at that as Radeese looked to his desk with fear. "It can only mean one thing. Krawl. The shards always warn us when those monsters are massing... but this is frightening even to me! I've never seen such a glow, nothing as intense as this!... I wish it weren't true, but this confirms it: our Wyterra is facing an unfathomable disaster!" Radeese spoke, Maja gasping at that as she thought hard.

"It must have something to do with Wyterra's former Spectrobe master. Maybe the Krawl are massing to exact their revenge for all of their ranks he slaughtered by destroying his planet of origin! We need to find the rest of the shards before something awful happens!" Maja said with seriousness.

"It may be possible that your assumption is right, Maja. Here, take these coordinates. They will lead you to Kogoeria, where Kamtoga actually has a base camp set up at. There are ruins that contain a shard on each of the planets other than Wyterra, so I suggest going to see Kamtoga. If anyone would know where the ruins on Kogoeria are located, it'd be him. He may even have some answers for you regarding your possible origins, Maja," Radeese said, Maja perking up at that as Radeese handed us the coordinates. "And would you mind if I were to have the shard? I'd like to study it to see what kind of disaster we may be dealing with."

"Of course, just promise not to lose it," I smiled as I handed him the shard and he smiled at us as we then left his house and proceeded back to our ship. Jeena then smiled as she put the coordinates into the database and we proceeded to jet our way to Kogoeria, where we saw that it was gigantic, blue, and it actually had an aura of dark blue surrounding the planet, which made sense as it was the furthest planet from the Kaio system's star thus far. We then landed in an area that looked like a base camp and were confused at how no one was around the place at all, Maja actually shivering a bit from the cold temperatures.

"Where the hell is everyone? Not even a warm welcome party," I frowned.

"Well, I'm not sure, but from the looks of these tracks it looks like wherever they went, they left in one big hurry," Jeena said as she looked at some foot tracks that led to a nearby exit of the camp.

"I-It c-could only mean K-K-Krawl... brr... this place is c-c-cold..." Maja shivered as her teeth started to chatter.

"I agree. Let's go and follow these tracks. Maybe we can find them and see if we can help them take out some Krawl in the meantime," I smirked as we went in the direction of the tracks and eventually made it to an area that had quite the beautiful landscape with the snow and ice formations around us. And the child Spectrobes all went to searching in the snow and had already found quite a number of items as we continued our trek through the snow including 4 more Evolve Minerals, a Defense Mineral, and 3 different fossils. But then, as we got to the center of the tundra area, we encountered a group of Krawl, them being water-based for their property, which meant we needed to use those of the Sky element, as our Cosmolinks had explained how the Kaio System properties worked.

"Iku Ze!" I exclaimed as I sent out Zappira, Jeena sent out Bazora, and Maja sent out one of the other Spectrobes from Nanairo in the form of Mesathorn. And its powers had also become different in the Kaio system as opposed to back home in Nanairo. Instead of him sending fire attacks, he quaked the ground on the Krawl and also sent rock attacks at them from afar! He was now a long-range attacking Earth type! And he made quick work of the smaller Krawl while Jeena and I handled the armored Krawl with our more powerful Spectrobes.

But once we handled them, Maja gasped as she sniffed the air in confusion. "I smell something nasty inside of this cave, guys... it smells like a big one," she said with seriousness. And immediately after she spoke, the ground actually started to quake around us as if it were footsteps! "Let's get in there! A Krawl that size would make short work of regular people without the help of weapons or Spectrobes!" Maja said as she rushed ahead of us and we followed suit, me actually liking how she wanted to do the mission as soon as possible. She and I were a lot alike in that sense now that she had changed... but I still had to explain to her about what happened to make her have her memory loss.

"Hey, um... Maja?" I asked her as we continued through the cave.

"Yes, hon?" she asked me.

"I want to tell you something serious... do you know why you lost your memories?" I asked her. Maja looked a bit confused at this and shook her head no. "Well, when we were in Sector W, you invaded our ship and were about to attack me just as we went into the portal. Jeena was the only one wearing a seat belt so both you and I flew all around in the cockpit as a result. And I landed directly on your head accidentally during the turbulence... and when you got up you forgot nearly everything," I explained to her, Maja smiling and hugging me again with a smile.

"It must've taken a lot of guts to tell me the truth, Rallen... I don't care that you accidentally caused it. Because of you, I'm able to be a better person," Maja smiled at me with a happy face. I responded by kissing her on the lips before Jeena interrupted us by throwing a bit of snow at our heads.

"If you two are done making out, we have a Krawl to take down and people to save," Jeena smiled at us.

"Right, sorry," Maja smirked as we went further into the cave while finding more minerals until we got to a part of the cave that was in the shape of a giant arena. And inside that arena? A gigantic Krawl in the shape of a seal with its entire front end encased in crystal! "Looks like a tough one, guys! Let's do this!" Maja said with a smile as she and our group summoned our Spectrobes and weapons and attempted to attack the giant Krawl... but for some odd reason, our weapons barely did any damage to them and our Spectrobes were also having difficulty getting through the crystal-protected head that took up 75 percent of the Krawl's body!

"This isn't good! We need more firepower!" Maja said with fear as the Krawl roared again and rushed her, Maja barely dodging out of the way as we then heard a voice from out of nowhere.

"Hey! How can you expect to beat that thing without better equipment! Here, heads up!" the voice exclaimed as Jeena and I saw two cubes appear from above and we caught them.

"What are they?" Jeena exclaimed.

"Nevermind that, just insert them into your Cosmolinks! They're the only kind of weapon that can cut through that thick hide!" the voice exclaimed as Maja gasped at it.

"That must be Kamtoga! Listen to him, guys!" Maja exclaimed as she got chased by the giant Krawl again and she had to resort to flying to get out of the way of another charge attack! I immediately inserted the cube as did Jeena and we gawked at how we now both had an axe in our grasps.

"Come and get some, beast!" I exclaimed at the giant Krawl as Jeena and I rushed him and our axes actually managed to slice right through its giant crystal beak! After assaulting it numerous times, it finally disintegrated after a loud roar, Jeena and I sighing afterwards as Maja joined back up.

"Whew... that thing almost ran me over," Maja said with concern.

"Haha! Never thought I'd see a Krawl on the good side, but now I have," we heard a voice say from behind us, prompting us to turn around and for Maja to gasp.

"Are you Kamtoga by chance?" Maja asked.

"Heh, yes I am. And who are you, miss? I'll be honest, never thought I'd meet a Krawl that looked and acted like a regular young woman, let alone one that kisses a human," the older guy said, Maja blushing in embarrassment at that.

"You saw that, huh?... I feel a bit embarrassed now," Maja smiled.

"And thirty years ago, believe it or not, I was one of the two using that Cosmolink your friends are holding in their hands there," he smiled at us.

"By the way, Mister Kamtoga, thanks for helping us," Jeena smiled.

"Ah, it was no sweat," I admitted, trying to play it off like it was no big deal.

"Hahaha! Last I checked that big boy was about to wipe the floor with ya! Now you obviously want my help, but if you ask me, you could use a couple of battle pointers in the future," Kamtoga said, me getting a bit angry at him for making fun of me like that. "Anyways, I'm gonna head back to camp with my boys here. Feel free to visit when you have the chance," Kamtoga smiled before he and his party left, me growling at his words.

"Can you believe him?! He's poking fun at us!" I said with anger.

"Hon, calm down. It may hurt your pride to admit it, but he's kinda right. If he hadn't given you guys those axes, we'd all have been dead meat. That monster couldn't even be attacked by our Spectrobes! Imagine how that would be in the future if we came across any future Krawl with armor that thick. We should be the ones thanking him. If anything, he rescued us," Maja said to me, which I groaned at as I simply sighed sharply.

"Fine... I guess you're right. Let's just go back to camp and see what he has to say," I frowned as we began our trek back to Kamtoga's base camp.


	10. The Master of Krawl and Spectrobes

**Chapter 10**

Once we got back to the village, I finally had gotten accustomed to the change in temperature, which was a relief as I was pretty cold earlier. "Excuse me, sir? Do you know where Mister Kamtoga is?" I asked one of the different camp members.

"He's in that hut over there," he said, me leading Rallen and Jeena to Kamtoga's hut and me knocking on the door to see if we could gain entry.

"Who's there?" Kamtoga asked.

"Um... Rallen, Jeena, and Maja. That trio you helped out?" I asked, Rallen about to say something before Jeena pelted him with snow to shut him up.

"Ah, the newbies! Come on in," Kamtoga smiled. We then proceeded into the hut and I smirked at how cozy it was. There was a fireplace, some pictures, and I even saw a photo of Kamtoga alongside two others, one of them being someone I recognized.

"Wyterra's Spectrobe Master... and who's this younger guy?" I asked when I saw the picture.

"Oh, him? He was some kinda guy that crash landed on Wyterra. He and I are best buddies... but my main partner... never mind, you came in here for something?" Kamtoga asked, him obviously not wanting to talk about him, but I had to ask.

"Apologies for bringing up the past, Kamtoga... but I think this Spectrobe Master may have a connection to my lost memories... I can see him in my mind and he's the first person I remembered... but I don't know what kind of person he was like. Do you know if you've seen me before?" I asked him, Kamtoga sighing and smiling at me.

"He was a brave and strong warrior, and very few knew his true name. He always went by the title of Master, even by me and my best bud. But something happened to him when we happened to discover a special chemical that could generate Krawl... he disappeared soon after those two fought over it... haven't seen him ever since. Even told me to leave the Cosmolink on Wyterra because he was 'losing control' of something... my bud that crashed in the ship? We parted ways after that and swore we'd keep defending the universe no matter where we were. In memory of our Master and partner," Kamtoga said, me smiling at that story before Rallen brought something up.

"There's also something else that's troubling. We found a shard of the beast king in Doldogo's ruins and Radeese said it was emitting one of the strongest red glows he'd ever seen. We need the rest of the shards because something bad is going to happen to Wyterra soon. We need to know if you know where the ruins are on this planet that holds the shard," Rallen said.

"Hehe, is that all? Sure, I know where the ruins are," Kamtoga smiled.

"Really? Well, lead us to 'em!" Rallen smiled widely, but then Kamtoga folded his arms and shook his head.

"Sorry, can't help you with that," he said, me wondering what he meant.

"Why not?" Rallen asked.

"Well, firstly because you don't know how to properly use the Cosmolink and secondly because you tend to be brash, as seen with that fight you almost lost in the caves," Kamtoga said, me looking at Rallen and seeing he was getting mad.

"I wasn't going to lose that fight! I was just going easy on him!" Rallen said, Jeena holding onto him to try to calm him down. No dice.

"Peh, is that so? Looked to me that not even your evolved Spectrobes could get through that hide! If I hadn't come along, you'd have been creamed," Kamtoga smiled, Rallen growling at that.

"I'm trying to ask nicely! Just tell us where the ruins are!" Rallen said with hostility, me holding down his other arm with worry.

"I'll say this just once. Courage isn't courage if it's heedless. And if you can't understand that much, well, all the more reason not to show you where the ruins are," Kamtoga said, Rallen growling at that as he broke out of Jeena and my grasp and looked pissed off.

"Whatever, we'll just go find it ourselves! Come on, guys!" Rallen frowned as he stormed out of the hut and I looked at him as Jeena scolded him before rushing off after him, me staying behind to look at Kamtoga.

"Sorry about that... he means well... he's just a bit upset," I said to him.

"Believe me, I know the type," he smiled at that, me going to go out and meet up with Rallen and Jeena, but seeing that they had already disappeared!

"Rallen? Jeena?" I asked, wondering where they could've gone off to. "RALLEN? JEENA?" I shouted. Still no response.

"If you're looking for your partners in the suits, they went up towards the north. Don't know what they're thinking, honestly. If you go too far to the north, the ice becomes very thin. Even the slightest jolt can send them falling into a chasm," one of the different camp workers said, me gasping at that and me immediately running back to Kamtoga.

"Kamtoga! Rallen and Jeena are going to be in danger!" I said to him with seriousness, him looking at me in confusion. "They're going north, to the thin ice!" I said, Kamtoga immediately bursting forward and joining me towards the northern area. And just as we passed the gate? We heard a terrible crash. It sounded like the entire mountain had cried out in pain. And I already knew what was the cause of it! "Hold onto my arm! I can fly us there to save time," I said to Kamtoga, him latching onto my arms as I flew us across the ice until we found a giant ice chasm. It looked freshly made, and I saw some movement down inside of the bottom.

"Rallen! Jeena!" I shouted at them, the duo gasping as they looked up and saw me. I was amazed that they managed to survive, as it was at least a 20 foot fall!

"Maja! Kamtoga!" Jeena and Rallen gawked as I saw they had another glowing fossil in their hands. It looked like a Spectrobe whose body looked like a donut and its head looked like a small lizard. I then flew down into the crevice and looked at Rallen with a sternness in my eyes.

"What were you thinking, Rallen? You could've gotten killed!" I said to him with serious concern in my voice.

"I know... I'm sorry," Rallen said, me simply hugging him, not letting go until I had gotten us both up to Kamtoga's point. I then went back down and helped Jeena up, both of them looking at Kamtoga with a frown of shame. "Sorry... for storming off before... and being brash," Rallen said, me smiling at that as Kamtoga smirked.

"Never happened, right?" Kamtoga smirked.

"Well, it did happen, and so did this. I do need to think things through... I need to get better at that," Rallen admitted.

"Well, kid, it's obvious you have issues, but realizing you have a problem? That's half the answer. I know that I was like you once. Always ran head-first into danger without a second thought... my Master, the Spectrobe Master, was the one to teach me not to be so reckless... I miss him, same with my old bestie," Kamtoga smiled.

"Yeah... we touched this fossil down there... if I'd known that you had done the same thing that I had, I wouldn't have been so brazen," Rallen said.

"Ah, Old Ukabi. I'd been wondering what happened to him. Must've turned back into a fossil after I fell down that exact same hole all those years ago and thought he'd gone to get help," Kamtoga smiled.

"Anyways, let's go on back to camp. You look like you'd be a fan of some hot tomato soup," Kamtoga smiled, me smiling at the offer.

"Could I try some? I haven't taste any kind of human food before," I smiled at him.

"Course ya can. You've got heart in ya too, lass. No idea how you were brought up to be this kind, but it's nice to have a Krawl on our side for a change," Kamtoga smiled. I couldn't help but smirk at that.

We then were led back to Kamtoga's hut and he gave us each a bowl of soup as he started to talk to us. I started to eat my soup with the spoon provided and I gasped at how sweet and tangy the flavor of it was, but also surprised at how hot it was! "Hehe, the secret ingredient is a special type of ground pepper. Makes it extra spicy on a cold Kogoerian night," Kamtoga smirked.

"So, I know I shouldn't ask this, but what do I need to do to get approval by you to get to the ruins?" Rallen asked.

"Well, since ya asked so nicely, I'll tell ya how to do it. There are two things you'll need to do before I'll let you in those ruins, both of them set to prepare you for them, as they're quite hard to get through. First, I want you to fill out all of your team in those Cosmolinks. That's 3 Adult Spectrobes and one Child Spectrobe for both of you. But to spice things up, I want at least 1 Evolved Spectrobe on each of your teams. The Krawl that you'll be facing on the other planets will be much tougher than the ones on this planet, especially since tons of them will have armor similar to old Crystal Face. Once you accomplish that, then I'll tell ya the second part," Kamtoga said.

"That can be accomplished. Besides, two of our Spectrobes can be evolved into their final stages as we speak. Just need to get back to the ship to evolve them," Jeena smiled.

"As for me, I don't think this would apply to me. This special Prizmod Rallen gave me already has numerous Evolved forms inside of it," I said as I showed him the Prizmod.

"Huh, that thing looks like it has some kind of similarity to the Cosmolink. Where'd you get it?" Kamtoga asked Rallen.

"When we first learned about the Krawl, it was when we found an ancient human frozen in cryogenic sleep. His name was Aldous and he provided the Prizmod and the equipment for me to use and evolve Spectrobes. Not long after that, the Krawl hit Nanairo, Jeena and I fighting off a lot of them not only once, but twice... and that's where we met Maja," Rallen said, me wondering who this Aldous character could be.

"Speaking of, what kind of Krawl is Maja? She looks the part with her purple skin, but she looks fully human other than that," Kamtoga said.

"She wasn't always the nice person you see before you. She used to be pure evil, serving the leader of the Krawl. She was the only female of 4 High Krawl, each given more power and intellect than the others, so they were pretty much the Krawl Generals, with Maja being the High Krawl of Darkness. We defeated her in the past, but she was resurrected again before we came here. She tried to invade our ship as we were sucked into a portal and the resulting turbulence and me landing on her head made her forget virtually everything. She didn't even remember her name," Rallen said.

"Krawl leader? And who is this Krawl leader? Didn't know they could have one," Kamtoga asked. I then said the name loud and clear.

"Krux... his name was Krux," I said. And when I said that word, Kamtoga literally spat out his soup and it sprayed all over me, obviously from shock.

"Did you say... Krux?" Kamtoga asked.

"Yes? Is there some kind of significance to that name? Have you ever met him?" Jeena asked.

"N-No... he can't be the leader of the Krawl... my Master..." Kamtoga said... and then it finally hit me. I looked at the picture of the trio in the photograph and then saw the being in my mind. The orange hair, the parts of the face that were still recognizable, and the story about a chemical that could generate Krawl? There was no mistake.

"Ho... ly... hell... The Spectrobe Master... is the Master of the Krawl?... So that's the connection..." I gawked as Kamtoga looked at me with a sigh.

"This is a bit much for me to take in... honestly, I thought he'd just disappeared... now I know what he meant by losing control. He was talking about himself..." Kamtoga gawked.

"I'm sorry..." Jeena said to him.

"Nothing to apologize for... I just need a few minutes. That should give you enough time to excavate and awaken the Spectrobes you found in the icy tundra. Mostly of the Water Property. I'd honestly pick Ryza," Kamtoga said.

"Okay... let's go, Maja..." Jeena said, me not even finished with my soup.

"D-Do you mind if I took the soup with me?" I asked him.

"I don't mind," he said. And as I left his hut, I could've sworn that I heard some sobbing from inside of that tent.


	11. Return of the Fire High Krawl

**Chapter 11  
**

While we excavated, awoke, and evolved the Spectrobes we'd found, we all were kind of concerned about what had just been revealed. The Spectrobe Master on Wyterra, someone who cared for Kamtoga enough to rescue him from that time ago and was so kind... he was now the ruthless and evil leader of the Krawl. Their hive mind. It made me very uneasy, as well as Jeena and Maja.

"I don't want to meet Krux at all... but if there is even a tiny chance that some of his humanity is still intact, maybe I can release him from his torment..." Maja said with some kind of hope. But there was no hope to give when dealing with Krux.

"Krux is able to teleport on a whim, summon and revive fallen Krawl, and he created you and the other High Krawl to attack and destroy at his command. There is no hope," I said to her bluntly, Maja sighing at that as Jeena and I upgraded our arsenal so that we now had an evolved form Spectrobe each, me having Rydrake and Jeena getting Ukabi to turn into Ukazeer. We then went back to Kamtoga and we saw that he was still a bit upset, but he had recovered somewhat.

"Hey, guys... did you get your Cosmolinks filled with Spectrobes and at least 2 Evolved Forms?" he asked.

"Yes, we did," Jeena said as she and I showed off our full Cosmolinks and Kamtoga smiled at that.

"That's great to see that you did that. Now for part two. You'll need this to get part 2 accomplished, however," Kamtoga smiled as he handed us a strange rainbow-colored seal that I thought looked cool.

"What's this?" Maja asked.

"It's called the Cosmokey. It's a special device that will allow you to find special markers that contain legendary weapons that only users of the Cosmolink can wield. There should be a marker in the Long Snowfield on the path to where we first met. All you need to do is get a legendary weapon and show it to me. Then I'll let you know where the ruins are... and be careful with those weapons, because each one has the powers of an Evolved form Spectrobe within them. They could hurt Maja here just as much as the regular Krawl and the weapons also have type attributes depending on the Spectrobe it's based on. For instance, a Paga would have a Water property wepaon while a Zappi would be a Sky element," Kamtoga said.

"Thanks for the intel, Kamtoga. We'll be back soon with that weapon," I smiled at him as our group then proceeded out of his hut and towards the Long Snowfield to the northeast, our group picking up some more minerals on the way until we came upon a cave that, upon us approaching it with the Cosmokey, a strange barrier was let down from it and we got inside of it. We then saw a glowing marker and I touched it with the key, the marker coming to life and hovering in the air as a weapon was formed. And it was a Blaster weapon! It looked very powerful and I saw that it looked similar to what Jeena's Paga looked like.

"I hereby dub this weapon, Paga Blaster," I smiled at it as it then went into the Cosmolink for both Jeena and I, which made us smirk at that.

"Now time to head back to Kamtoga. Now we can finally get that shard," Jeena smiled as Maja looked into the distance and she sniffed the air, her looking confused at something.

"Is something wrong, Maja?" I asked her.

"Well... I can't be sure... but I smell something very odd nearby... I don't know what it is, but it doesn't smell like a Krawl... it smells more like fire of some kind, but with a hint of Krawl inside... you don't think the other High Krawl could be here on Kogoeria with us, do you?" Maja asked, me wondering if she was right.

"I don't know, but from that description, it sounds like Gelberus. We should be on alert while hunting for that shard," I said as we proceeded back to camp and Maja kept watch out of Kamtoga's hut while Jeena and I went inside.

"Where's Maja at?" Kamtoga asked.

"She's keeping alert for any kind of trouble. She sensed a strange presence nearby and doesn't know if it's friend or foe, so she insists on standing guard while we met with you," Jeena said.

"I see. And I can already tell by looking at your Cosmolinks that ya got the Paga Blaster. Now you're all set to go out to the ruins for sure! As for where they are, here's what you do. You go down the path to the northwest of the camp and then, when you get to the large open part, go to the east instead of continuing north and you'll find a cave that takes you to the upper parts of the Ice Cavern. Go along the path from there and you'll soon find the ruins. But be careful, because the way there is sure to be chock full of Krawl. No one in this camp has gone up to those routes for over 2 weeks," Kamtoga said.

"Okay, we'll be careful," Jeena said as we then left and I frowned at the fact that I was actually going the right way the first time before I fell in that crevasse... it was my fault for being bullheaded and I needed to do just as Krux said to Kamtoga. I had to learn to reign it in.

"All clear, Maja?" I asked her when we met back up with her.

"Not really... I can smell the fire more clearly... I can smell it... I know I've smelled it in the past... it's just got to be Gelberus, like you said... I'm afraid of what will happen when we face him," Maja admitted with a look of concern on her face.

"Well, he might not attack at all if he sees you on our side," Jeena said.

"I don't know. Gelberus is a bit of a hothead both literally and figuratively. He's hot to temper and he's hot to touch. If we face him on Kogoeria, then we're going to need to avoid any kind of melted ice," I said as we proceeded to the northwest and through the snowy path until I happened to see something in the snow. Burnt patches. And they looked like footprints with 4 toes.

"These look like my feet... it's Gelberus," Maja gawked as she put her bare foot on the charred part of the snow, her foot being smaller, but being the exact same in shape.

"You're right, Maja... we need to be careful," I said as we moved forward while sticking close together, entering the pass Kamtoga mentioned until we got onto a large bridge and on the other side we entered a cave filled to the brim with icicles. And once we got through that while collecting more minerals and fossils, we then got to the next part, which was a winding path around the mountainside where we saw some more charred tracks on the ground as well as saw that there was a large gap that impeded our progress.

"I got this. Grab hold," Maja said, me smiling and latching around her, accidentally touching her chest in the process and blushing as Maja took me to the other side.

"Uh... sorry, didn't mean to," I said to her, Maja smiling at that.

"It's fine, accidental," Maja smirked as she got Jeena and we moved forward some more before Maja sniffed the air.

"I smell it... he's up ahead. Gelberus... I'll proceed forward first and pretend to be on his side," Maja said.

"Okay, we'll follow closely, but stay out of sight," Jeena said, me and her following Maja from a distance and hiding from behind some pillars as we saw Maja approach a fiery apparition that then formed into none other than Gelberus himself.

"Maja? Is that you?" Gelberus asked.

"Yeah, it's me," Maja said to him with a smile, faking it very well. At least she did keep that trait on her.

"Master Krux has been concerned as to where you went. He wanted to know where you vanished to as your job was to keep Nanairo patrols busy and to prevent them from entering this system," Gelberus said, Maja looking at him with a sigh before shaking her head at that.

"Sorry, but I can't remember that... I got hit on the head pretty badly," Maja said with a frown as she showed the goose egg she still had on her head from where I landed on her.

"I see. So why do you have that orange-haired brat's Prizmod on your person? Did you finally eliminate him?" Gelberus asked. Maja simply smiled at that and sent out Daigyo while also summoning her sword.

"He's my boyfriend. And I don't want to be compared to a monster like you or the other Krawl ever again! I don't want to be a monster that destroys worlds! I want to protect them from your despicable kind!" Maja growled, me and Jeena then rushing out and joining her as well, Gelberus growling at that as I felt his flames intensify.

"So, you decide to rebel against your own kind, Maja? Very well. Then as a favor to Master Krux, I shall put you down right now," Gelberus said with anger as his form became encased in a giant fiery tornado, his body changing into his battle form! His body grew by at least a foot, his arms turned into giant hammers of molten lava and rock, and his body hovered off of the ground on a flume of fire!

"Let's do this! Iku Ze!" Maja said, making me proud at how she was using my catchphrase. Now we were going to be facing a High Krawl... with a High Krawl on our side!


	12. Ice Ruins and Message From Krux

**Chapter 12**

Gelberus, with the combined might of me and my human friends, was pretty much a pushover, even in spite of some of the icy glaciers melting slightly from his attacks, but not to the point that we'd have an avalanche. And when Gelberus finally took enough damage, he returned back to his normal form and looked near-death as I approached him with a frown and the sword in my hand.

"Master Krux... will see that you pay... you're not like him..." Gelberus said to me, which made me smile.

"Quite right, Gelberus. Because while I'm a full-blooded Krawl, Krux is half Krawl and half human," I said to him, Gelberus gasping as I then plunged the sword through his skull, Gelberus gasping before his body shriveled up into a giant pile of detritus, which was unusual considering the other Krawl we faced just turned into dust.

"That was badass, Maja," Rallen smiled at me. I smirked at that compliment as I then touched Gelberus's body and we all three gasped audibly when something happened upon me touching it. I actually felt some of his power enter my body before he disintegrated the whole way.

"Whoa... d-did I just... absorb his power?" I gasped as I felt my right arm become much warmer and I saw that it had fire coating it. It was just a good thing that the Prizmod was unharmed despite that.

"Hmm... may need to move you to my left arm," I smiled as I grabbed the Prizmod and removed it from my right arm before latching it onto my left one, me noting that the ruins above us had opened their doors after Gelberus's defeat. "Now let's get in there and save the second shard. If Gelberus was here, he's sure to have come here to get the shard by Krux's orders," I said with seriousness.

"Agreed, let's hurry," Jeena said as we rushed into the opened door to the ruins and we emerged into a large and impressive room that had quite the decor. It was all a hint of blue and one of the murals showed a picture of a gigantic Spectrobe that looked like a dragon surrounded by the 5 different elemental types of the Kaio system. "This mural looks important... you think that giant Spectrobe is the Beast King?" Jeena asked.

"Possible, and I think the types must mean something. We'll keep it a note to have one of each type of Spectrobe in our parties at any given time, okay?" Rallen smiled.

"Right," I smiled as we then proceeded down an elevator and into a room that we had to work to get through. How so? We needed to step on different switches, carry different totems to their corresponding pedestals that matched their colors, and we even had to make sure that the bridges were raised after going through so that the door above us would be able to be opened up. And once we accomplished all of that, we went down a second elevator and into a room that had a large arena in it, me wondering if we'd have Krawl to fight. And sure enough, once we got into the arena, the doors closed up on us and a bunch of different Krawl appeared to attack, them being of the Water property, so I brought out a Spectrobe that I knew was of the Sky property, that being Mossax. When it came out, I smiled at how Mossax immediately went to work at firing air gusts at the enemies from a distance while Rallen and Jeena handled the smaller Spectrobes with their Sky types. Once all of them were eliminated, the doors then opened up, including the one above us.

"You guys want to go to the door now to save some time?" I asked them.

"Sure, I don't mind cheating," Jeena chuckled as she wrapped her hands around me and I flew us up to the area that led to the next part, me then returning and doing the same for Rallen. He tried to wrap his hands around my waist, but I smiled and had him wrap them around my chest instead, Rallen blushing at that and Jeena giggling at that when I landed by her.

"You're getting a bit frisky, aren't you, Maja?" Rallen smiled.

"Well... I may have forgotten a lot, but I know the ins and outs of what boys like in girls. Just wanted to give you a small treat," I smiled at him.

"Well... uh... maybe wait until we're back on the cruiser and not on a job?" Rallen smirked with a blush.

"Alright, fair enough," I winked at him as we then proceeded down the next elevator and we saw that we were in a large area, much like with the ruins on Doldogo. And there was a gigantic 3-headed Krawl waiting for us with heads that represented the trinity of properties in Nanairo according to Rallen's Prizmod! Green for Aurora, blue for Flash, and red for Corona!

"Let's do this. Iku-Ze!" Rallen smiled as we sent out our weapons and Spectrobes again, me choosing Mesathorn for the fight as he was the strongest physical attacker. Rallen had chosen Rydrake and Jeena had chosen Ketobasu. I started the fight by rushing in and hacking away at an icy part of the beast's chest and saw that it contained a weak spot similar to that of the giant Krawl on Wyterra. I then slashed at the weak spot while Mesathorn skewered it a few times with a few slashes of his impressive claws. Rallen and Jeena were doing their attacking as well, focusing on the giant feet instead. The giant Krawl tried to crush me with its giant feet in the process, but I smiled as I activated some kind of power within my flaming hand and shot it directly upwards and through the giant Krawl's entire body! It disintegrated soon after and I smiled at how, upon defeating the Krawl, the shard's chamber had revealed itself from some ice blocking the doorway.

"Alright, here's the second shard. It took a bit of work, but we finally got it," Jeena smiled.

"Yeah, but the fact that Krux sent a High Krawl to get the shard is troubling. He's going to destroy Wyterra and we know that he's targeting these shards because the Beast King is the only one capable of stopping his plans. Let's get the shard and return back to Kamtoga's camp," Rallen said.

"Agreed," I said while snubbing my nose, us getting into the chamber and getting the shard in the process, it entering Rallen's Cosmolink upon him touching it.

"This one also had an intense glow. Not a good sign... wait, what's this?" Jeena asked as she noticed a strange white circle on the ground.

"I don't know... maybe we can find out by touching it?" I asked as I grabbed the other two and I had all of us enter the circle at the same time, me gasping at how our surroundings suddenly changed to that of the icy path that led to the crevasse!

"Whoa! It teleported us back near the Base Camp!" Rallen gawked.

"Yeah, that was definitely an experience," Jeena smirked as she shivered a bit, most likely from either the cold or from surprise.

"Let's go meet up with Kamtoga and see if he has any intel on other planets," I smiled, us heading back to the camp and back to Kamtoga's hut, him smiling at us happily when we came in.

"I see you've returned. Did you find the shard?" Kamtoga questioned.

"Yep, we did. And we're planning on heading back to Wyterra to inform Radeese... but we still need to know where the other shards are located on each planet," I said.

"If you want to know that, I suggest finding a guy named Neal. He's one of the toughest explorers you'll ever meet and he's currently exploring Menehat, the largest planet in this Solar System. Here is his communications codes and from me, a special gift. You know those special fossils that can glow brightly? Well, this one also has that honor. And it can allow the users of the Cosmolink to see a memory," Kamtoga smiled as he handed Rallen a fossil that had a look of a seed. I touched it as well with my Prizmod hand and gasped as I too saw the vision.

This vision started out with a strikingly similar cruiser to Rallen and Jeena's crashing outside of old Krux's cave and Kamtoga and him were arguing about going in there.

"No one could've survived, don't do it!" Kamtoga said.

"No, I need to make sure!" Krux said, him rushing into the burning ship and Kamtoga hissing as the fire spewed some more.

"Rgh... And I thought I was reckless!" Kamtoga said, me smirking at that as Krux went into the machine and I gasped as I saw that he was rescuing a young Commander Grant!

"It's going to blow! Don't be a hero, now go!" Grant said, his voice much younger sounding as well.

"Sorry, can't do that," Krux said as Kamtoga soon appeared.

"Okay, I'm going to lift this, once we do we gotta book it. How are you at the 50 yard dash?" Kamtoga smiled.

"I knew you'd come to help, Kamtoga!" Krux smiled.

"Someone had to make sure you didn't screw up... HRRRGGRAAH!" Kamtoga grunted as he lifted the debris off of Grant and Krux helped him off of the ground, the machine producing more fire as the trio then escaped, a large explosion happening after all of them were clear of the blast.

"Haha, that's a hell of a fender-bender, bud. I wouldn't want to see the repair bill on that one," Kamtoga smiled.

"Hope its a rental," Krux smiled as all of them started to laugh at that.

"You guys are nuts... hahaha," Grant laughed along with them as the vision then ended and we all three looked at Kamtoga with a smile.

"So it wasn't just any old bestie... it was Commander Grant that you were talking about! I thought this was his old badge we found at that cave," Rallen smiled as he held Grant's badge in his hands again.

"Wait. Commander Grant? Hahaha! You work under that old codger, ey? Now I see where you get your stubborn streak, kid," Kamtoga laughed that one off.

"Yeah, I thought his picture looked familiar, but he wasn't wearing any of the gear to be an NPP soldier, so it was hard to imagine this guy as Grant," Jeena smiled as she looked at the picture as well.

"Well, if you happen to see old Grant, tell him his best buddy Kamtoga says he's doing well and kicking ass like I was in my 30's," Kamtoga laughed.

"You got it," I smiled at Kamtoga as he gave us the Spectrobe fossil as well as the communication coordinates for Neal. We then proceeded on our way back to the ship and Jeena got the idea to call up NPP again.

"Jeena? Is that you?" Harry asked.

"Yep, it's us again. We're on Kogoeria. Got anything on it?" Jeena smiled.

"Kogoeria... nope, that's a new one. You guys don't make things easy, do you?" Harry smiled.

"Cut us some slack, Harry. Besides, we have to tell you something. We met one of Commander Grant's old companions out here. Do you know if he's nearby?" I smiled.

"W-Well..." Harry said, him obviously concerned.

"Well, what? Is he there or isn't he?" Rallen asked.

"Actually, I was hoping you guys might know. No one's seen him since he disappeared... and... well, an uncertified cruiser left just a bit after you disappeared..." Harry said.

"Do you think it may have been Grant?" Jeena asked.

"I don't really want to say it, but truthfully I think it was him. Besides, not a lot of this makes sense. First he sends you out to that sector where he knew a portal was, then Maja invades your ship and loses almost all her memories, and now Commander Grant is missing... not only that, but there aren't even that many Krawl coming into Nanairo right now... how about you guys?" Harry asked.

"Peh, not only have we been running into Krawl nonstop since we arrived here, but one of these planets, Wyterra, is facing some terrible tragedy soon. We don't know what, but with all of these Krawl and the fact we had to take out Gelberus an hour before we got on here again, we're going to say that Krux is planning something bad," Rallen said.

"He sent the other High Krawl to that system? The Kaio System, right? That's what you called it?" Harry asked.

"Yes. And as it turns out, this is where Krux started life as... and on Wyterra. So it's only natural that he'd want to try and destroy this place," Jeena said, me sighing as I tried to think of some kind of way to get Krux nice again. But then I felt some kind of voice in my head, it actually causing me pain from it.

"Maja..." I heard a dark, echoed voice say to me.

"Rgh... who... are you?" I groaned as I wondered whose voice that was.

"I've been looking for you... what is your status?" the voice asked, Rallen and Jeena looking at me with concern as I felt uncomfortable, Harry cutting the connection either way.

"Who are you?... What status?" I asked back.

"You know who I am. I created you," the voice said, me gasping at that and gritting my teeth.

"Krux... where are you?" I asked politely, not growling so as not to make him raise suspicion.

"I will only tell you if you tell me your status," Krux said.

"Most of my memories are gone... when I traveled through the portal, I forgot a lot of things. Apologies, but I don't know what my original duties were supposed to be," I said to him with full honesty.

"Hmm... you are speaking truthfully... your new duties are to go to Kogoeria and meet up with Gelberus. He hasn't contacted back for awhile," Krux said.

"I apologize, but Gelberus... I already found him. He breathes breath no more," I said, Krux seething at that before regaining his composure.

"Very well. You may do as you please for now, but I shall be debating what you should do in the meantime," Krux said.

"Of course, Master," I said, me sighing as I finally felt his presence leave from my mind. Once I was sure it was gone, Rallen and Jeena were still staring at me and I simply blushed at that. "Krux just contacted me in my mind... he's fooled into thinking I'm still on his side. Let's keep it that way as we get this shard over to Wyterra, okay, hon?" I smiled at Rallen, which made him smile back at me.

"Of course, Maja," Rallen smirked back.


	13. Heat in Menehat

**Chapter 13**

On our way to Wyterra, Maja looked at me with puppy dog eyes and tried to keep coaxing me to touch her boobs. I smiled at that and looked her in the eyes despite her trying to get me to look down at her chest. "I appreciate that you want me to touch your chest, Maja, I really do, but I'm just not comfortable to do that yet, sorry," I said to her honestly, Maja smiling at me and nodding her head.

"You're such a gentleman, Rallen. And so you know, that was a test," Maja smirked at me, which I chuckled warmly at.

"Good to know I passed," I smiled back as we finally touched down on Wyterra and Jeena looked at us with a smile on her face.

"Okay, lovebirds, let's go find Radeese and ask if he found anything out about the shards," Jeena said, our group moving out to Haven Village and entering Radeese's house, where we saw he had the shard on his desk and it glowed just as brightly as the one we had.

"Oh, I see you have returned from Kogoeria. Did you meet with Kamtoga?" Radeese asked us with a smile.

"Yes, we did. And we actually found the shard there as well. Have you uncovered anything about the shards in the meantime?" Jeena asked.

"Indeed I have. There are 5 shards total, one on each planet minus Wyterra, all of them sealed in ruins. Only by reuniting all 5 shards in a special place on Wyterra will the Beast King finally wake," Radeese explained. "Do you have an idea of where to go next?"

"Well, Kamtoga suggested Menehat, so why not there?" Maja smiled.

"In that case, here are the coordinates you'll need... I also have an expansion cube you can use for your machine on the ship. You'll need all the Spectrobes you can find if you wish to face the stronger Krawl on the other planets," Radeese smiled.

"Thanks, Radeese. We'll be back with shard number 3 in no time!" I smiled at him as we went back to the ship and Jeena got to work on installing the expansion cube, her managing to do so in less than 30 seconds.

"Now we have 5 more rooms to hold Spectrobes in and we can change the room type to better suit certain Spectrobes," Jeena said with happily.

"Nice job, Jeena. Now let's head off to Menehat," I smiled, me rushing to the controls before Jeena stopped me.

"Wait, I want to try contacting Neal with these transmission coordinates Kamtoga provided. Maybe we can have him help us find out where the shard is located," Jeena suggested.

"Good idea. More brains means more firepower and less time spent. And the less time spent means that we can help keep Wyterra alive longer," Maja said as Jeena input the coordinates and she looked confused.

"Huh... I'm getting a strange signal... it sounds like a voice, but I can't really tell... here, I'll turn up the volume," Jeena said as she did so and we heard a voice on the other end. That sounded like he was in distress.

"Heeeelllp... heeeaallllp... Somebody?... Pleaheeheeaasse..." the message said, Maja looking concerned by it and her strapping herself in immediately.

"No time to waste standing around! If that was Neal, he sounded like he was in a big heap of trouble! Let's get going, guys!" Maja said.

"Agreed. No time to waste, let's go rescue him," I said as I also got strapped in as Jeena started the cruiser, us jetting off into space and towards the coordinates for Menehat, us gawking at the size of the planet as well as the vast amount of nothing on the planet. It was nothing but desert all over! We eventually landed in a spot close to the specific coordinates, which was right outside of a gigantic crater that Maja looked a bit tense about.

"Hmm..." Maja frowned as she looked at the crater before gasping.

"What is it, hon?" I asked her.

"I sense... a terrible power within this crater... a Krawl... one much larger and more aggressive than all of the other Krawl we'd ever fought before... it's not dead, nor alive... it's in some kind of comatose state within this crater," Maja said, her words making me and Jeena look concerned.

"If Krux very well wanted to, he could wake that monster up and make this planet become even more lifeless than it already is! Let's hurry and find the ruins. Maja, you stay here and stand guard for a bit. I have a feeling that Krux may contact you again, or even worse, may try to wake up this giant Krawl. You think you can try to stop Krux if he tries to make the Krawl wake up?" I asked her.

"I'll do it on one condition, Rallen," Maja smiled.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Once we're done on Menehat, you fondle my chest the whole trip back to Wyterra," Maja said, me becoming a bit dumbfounded by that, but blushing as I nodded.

"O-Okay, we can do that," I smiled at her nervously, Jeena smirking at my bashfulness, which only made me more embarrassed. We then walked off and Jeena started to talk to me once out of earshot.

"Real smooth, Rallen. She's practically throwing herself onto you at this point. Maybe Krawl have urges like other creatures and humans do?" Jeena smiled at me, which only added onto my embarrassment.

"W-Well... it's kind of awkward that she's showing this much sexual tension towards me... I mean, she tried to kill us in the past and now she's a completely different person, now developing a sexual interest in me... it's a bit embarrassing for me to admit this, but I do like her... but I don't know what could happen if we went ahead and did any kind of regular sex, which I fear may end up happening in the end," I admitted to Jeena.

"What better bit of experimentation could you ask for, though? After all, if she has free will from being a Krawl, imagine a kid of you two running about," Jeena said, me throwing sand at her shirt in response to that.

"A bit early to be talking about that, Jeena," I frowned at her.

"You're paying for my laundry when we get back home," Jeena batted back as we saw a large work site ahead of us. And when we entered, we were stopped by three different people, all of them looking ten times of shady.

"Oi! We don't like no outsiders! You lot seem shady," the little one of the group said.

"It looks to be the other way around. You lot seem even shadier than Cyrus back home in Nanairo," I said to them.

"Ey! Don't say we're da shady ones!" the littlest one said.

"Well, he's kinda right, Zig," the taller, skinnier one said.

"Shaddup, Beht! If I says they's shady, then thems is shady! Just stay outta our way! We're gonna strike it rich!" the little guy said, him being Zig.

"Riches? We don't care about that. Our paycheck is plenty good enough where we work anyways. Besides, we're looking for a guy named Neal. You seen anyone other than us come through here?" Jeena asked.

"Nope, not seen a single outsider 'ere for a while. If youse wanna learn more, ask da udder woikers," Zig said again.

"We need to git back to work soon, Zig. We don't wanna be on drill cleaning duty again," the big one said.

"Oh crap! Yer right, Gorrik! Let's scat and find dat loot!" Zig said again as he and the trio rushed out of the place and towards the north.

"What was that all about?" I asked Jeena.

"No clue. We should ask around a bit to see where Neal went off to," Jeena said. We then proceeded to ask the various workers, some of them saying that they had seen an explorer named Neal and that he had disappeared to an area to the north called the Great Desert. But we couldn't gain access to it unless we got clearance from their boss, Dyrus.

"You think that this Dyrus is just as shady as Cyrus back in Nanairo?" I asked Jeena outside his building.

"No clue," she said as we approached him and he looked confused at our presence.

"Huh? Who are you and what are ya doing here?" he asked.

"Well, we wanted to know if we could possibly have clearance to the desert," I asked him politely.

"And why would I do that? Wait... yer here to steal my secrets, ain't ya?! Try to take my flow of cash!" Dyrus exclaimed, Jeena holding me off as she explained the situation.

"No, we don't want any kind of money ventures. We want clearance because we're searching for someone that sent a distress signal in the desert," Jeena said.

"Huh? Lookin' for someone? Why didn't ya say so in the first place? Go ahead, you've got my permission. Give this paper to the gatekeeper. He'll let ya through. Just don't meddle in my business and I won't meddle in yours, got it?" Dyrus asked.

"Understood," I said to him as we then went out of the place and to the gatekeeper, him opening the gate upon seeing the paper in my hands.

"Be careful out there, newbies. The Great Desert doesn't get its name for being a small oasis. It's the largest expanse of pure sand and rock near this base of operations," the guard stepping aside as we proceeded into the desert.

"Time to find Neal... but where to start searching?" I asked, Jeena noticing that the Spectrobes were looking to be sniffing the ground for something. They then started to run off, me smiling as they must've caught onto Neal's scent. "Let's follow Paga and Hananomi, Jeena. They look to be leading us to Neal," I smiled.


	14. Close Shave

**Chapter 14**

I stood near the crater that Rallen had left me by, but made sure not to stay near the cruiser. I didn't want to raise suspicion of my allegiances to Krux if he did happen to show up. And sure enough, he did show up, him appearing out of thin air from above the entire crater, me gawking at his presence, me already sensing that his power was far stronger than mine in physical strength.

"Monster from eons past... awaken from your selfish slumber... and terrorize the world once more! HYA HA HAA!" Krux laughed as he attempted to drop a ball of pure dark energy down, but I spoke up before he could let go of it.

"Master Krux?" I asked him, getting his attention from my standpoint, Krux letting his powers down as he looked at me with his mask on him.

"Ah, Maja. What are you doing on this planet?" Krux asked as he floated over to my location at the edge of the cliff.

"Well, I simply stowed away on those stupid Nanairo duo's ship. They're here too, just an FYI," I said, Krux curling his hand into a fist at that.

"And I see that you also have the redhead's Prizmod on your person. This can be used to our advantage. Now, watch as I bring forth a monster that will terrorize this planet," Krux said with seriousness as I then asked a serious question to him.

"What was your life like in the past, Master?" I asked him, Krux stopping in place and turning around, him looking at me with unflinching movements, almost as if he were trying to stare me down.

"My life in the past? Why would you ask such a ludicrous question, Maja?" Krux asked with a snarl.

"Well, I've come across glowing fossils while going to the different planets and they showed you back in the past... but you were nothing like you were today," I said to him.

"Peh, I didn't expect you to be able to see those stored memories, let alone of me when I was a disgusting human," Krux said, me looking at him with seriousness.

"You are still a human, Master. You may not act like one anymore, but you were once a caring man that had actual friends. And you still are, despite you having more Krawl characteristics," I said to him, hoping he may show a shred of dignity or kindness. No dice. What did he do? Something that I didn't expect.

Krux warped directly in front of me and grabbed me by the throat! I gasped as I suddenly felt my air leave my body and I felt like I was getting my power drained from my body! But then I remembered my fire arm! I forced it into Krux's side and he dropped me as I left a giant burn mark directly on his side, Krux hissing from it as I gasped back to life and I immediately fled by means of flying, Krux trying to send some attacks at me, but me dodging them while hitting him a few more times with fireballs. I then fled into the desert nearby, me hearing and seeing a giant structure rise from the ground in the process, me knowing that hit had to be Rallen and Jeena.

I caught my breath and waited outside of the door at the base of the giant structure and Rallen and Jeena emerged along with a new face I hadn't seen before. "Maja? What happened?" Rallen asked. I simply walked over to him and slapped him across the cheek with tears in my eyes.

"I almost died by Krux's hands, that's what goddamn happened!" I exclaimed at him as I then hugged him, Rallen a bit confused by my actions while the new face looked at me with intrigue.

"What are you? You look human, but your skin color and robes scream gothic extraterrestrial," the man said. I simply sniffled and sighed at him.

"Maja... High Krawl... almost died by my creator," I sighed at him.

"A Krawl? You mean those monsters that eat planets?" he asked.

"Focus, Neal. Where are the next set of ruins?" Jeena asked him.

"Oh, well the book said to search by a giant cactus with red flowers," the man named Neal said.

"Okay... l-let's go..." I sighed as I sniffed in again and wiped my tears, our group moving to the area in question and Rallen petting me on my shoulder as we went, which felt nice in all honesty.

"I'm sorry, Maja... I shouldn't have asked you to face Krux..." Rallen sighed at me.

"It's fine... I just... when you almost die, it makes you realize just how fragile life is," I admitted as I looked at my hands with a sigh. Even without Gelberus's powers, they were as purple as the rest of my body. But I didn't really feel the color I naturally was. I felt like I was blue... I was a bit taken aback at how I almost died because of Krux's powers.

When we finally found the red-flowered cactus, Jeena's Paga searched the ground and found the elevator down to the ruins. "Let's go... you okay, Maja?" Jeena asked.

"I'm coming with you... no more going alone... I want to stay with you and never be away from you... Krux would try to kill me if I got alone again, I'm sure of it..." I gulped with honesty as I followed them down the elevator.

"You really are scared of Krux now... Maja..." Rallen said, me hugging him again as we went down the elevator.

"Thanks Rallen... I'm just... I really am scared..." I said as I sniffed again.

"We need to keep moving. If Krux didn't retreat, he may make that Krawl wake up again," Jeena said.

"Yeah... agreed," I said, trying to smile, but my eyes still watering.


	15. Argument with Dyrus

**Chapter 15**

I knew I shouldn't have let Maja go and confront Krux on her own, and I knew it was my fault for having her do that. It made me feel very guilty as we proceeded through the second and third set of ruins, our group having Neal tag along in one way or another, mainly from him continuing to fall into the exit of the ruins we were exploring and being completely fine afterwards, laughing off the long fall like it was nothing.

"How is this guy alive after falling three times into three different ruins? Is he made of rubber?" Maja asked me in confusion.

"I honestly don't know myself," I said, though both of us still had faces of regret to show each other. We continued to raise the third set of ruins before disembarking from them, us hearing and feeling the sand quake around us before something enormous popped out of the ground. It was the giant Krawl that Maja was warning us about!

"What the?! T-That is a Krawl, right?" Jeena gawked with fear.

"It definitely is. Krux must've awoken it after I fled!" Maja said in shock.

"Speedy too. Just our luck," Jeena gawked as the giant Krawl then swam through the sand and towards the southwest.

"That must be the Legendary Krawl that caused Menehat to turn into this barren wasteland in ancient times! The Pit of Ruin, you know, that large crater? It was actually caused when that Krawl fell to this planet eons ago!" Neal said in surprise.

"We gotta warn Dyrus and his workers! If that Krawl decides to attack, it would completely level their base camp! Let's go!" Maja said as she took the lead and we followed after her to the northwest, entering the camp and the one in charge of the gate looking confused at us coming back, but more confused at Maja.

"Whoa, whoa, what's the hurry and who's the purple chick?" the guy asked.

"You need to close this gate up and rally everyone to get away from this camp! A gigantic fish-like Krawl has been released and if he wants to attack, he's going to destroy everything and everyone in this entire camp!" Jeena said with seriousness.

"I-I can't! We have to get clearance from Dyrus to do anything!" the guy said.

"The very least you can do is close up the gate! We'll handle Dyrus, just keep this gate closed and your workers inside!" Maja exclaimed.

"Yikes! Okay, I'm closing it!" he gawked as he then closed up the gate and we proceeded to Dyrus with Maja leading, her approaching Dyrus with concern.

"Whoa, who are you and what's the rush?... And why the purple skin?" Dyrus asked.

"There's a gigantic Krawl that appeared out of nowhere! You need to evacuate your workers before that monster kills every last one of them!" Maja said.

"Hah! No can do, missy-moo-moo! I'm running a multimillionaire business here! If we stopped working for even one day, our profits would take a serious toll!" Dyrus said, me, Jeena, and Maja gasping at his insolence.

"You stupid, bullheaded son of a bitch!" Maja exclaimed as she slapped him across the face, Dyrus gasping at that as Maja growled lowly. "That Krawl won't just destroy your workers, but he'll also destroy all of your equipment! And if that happens, you won't have any business and you'll be either dead from that monster or we will make sure that you pay for all the workers that you had killed that you could've saved!" Maja snarled at him.

"You... you hit me..." Dyrus gawked.

"Forget it, we're wasting our time talking to a rich, pompous, idiotic jackass like you! Come on, we're going to go after that Krawl. In the meantime, you keep all of your workers in the camp and keep the gate locked up tight! If you can't even manage to do that, then you're the most pathetic person in the entire universe! Even worse than Cyrus!" I growled at him lowly, Dyrus glaring at me when I said Cyrus.

"You mean my idiot cousin that suddenly ditched me and disappeared through a portal?! How do you know him?" Dyrus asked with a growl.

"Know him? We had to fetch a freaking diamond for him in a poisonous mountain cave before he would help us! And that's the only bad thing he's done! He's helped us more than you have and you're saying you'd rather think about your worthless cash than all the lives and crimes you're pulling by not putting your workers' safety first!" Jeena exclaimed at him as well. "Come on, let's just leave this rich boy alone. He's obviously not going to budge, even when threatened with jail time," Jeena growled as we stormed off of the place and back to the gate to find Neal, him looking concerned about our angry faces.

"He said no, didn't he?" Neal asked.

"No shit," Maja growled.

"Peh, I'm not surprised. That's the kind of man he is," the gatekeeper said.

"What I'm more pressed in wondering is how the hell we're going to take out a Krawl of that massive a size?" I asked with seriousness in my voice.

"I have an idea! Maybe the ruins will hold the answers!" Neal said, that peaking our interest. "According to the legend, the ancient Spectrobe Masters used a Legendary secret weapon to combat the giant Krawl. And I bet anything that it's connected to the 7 Sealed Ruins!" Neal said with a smile.

"Okay then. Gatekeeper, keep the gate closed and don't let anyone leave the campsite. We'll take care of that giant Krawl before it can hurt this place," I said to him.

"Got it. But keep a look out for the three troublemakers? Their names are Zig, Beht, and Gorrik. They wanted to search for buried treasure in the desert and may not have got the message," the gatekeeper said.

"Got it, we'll keep an eye out for them. After all, they keep on trying to find the ruins along with us," I said as Maja then helped carry me, Neal, and Jeena over the gate and into the desert itself. And once we did so, my child form in a brand new Ukabi immediately sniffed the air and started to lead us to the south.

"I think he's showing us the way. Come on, let's follow him!" Jeena said, us following Ukabi to the next set of ruins.


End file.
